Planes: Search and Rescue
by CarsWorldFan
Summary: Lieutenant Sara Chopper is a career-focused search and rescue helicopter who takes her job very seriously. But when she makes a mistake that costs someone their life, she decides to go AWOL in her panic. During her desperate flight to Alaska, she crashes at Piston Peak Air Attack. What will Blade Ranger do when he discovers her secret? Warning: minor suicide and drug references.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: All recognisable characters belong to Disney. All OCs belong to me.**

Chapter 1

"Lieutenant Chopper! This is Commander Grayson. Report your position, please. Over!"

"Commander Grayson… I am within sight of the base. Will be landing within five minutes. Have the emergency services on stand-by near the helipad. Patient is critical, but stable. Over."

"Copy that. Over and out."

Picking up a pair of binoculars with his forklift arms, Commander Grayson peered out into the grey swirl of cloud and sea mist that blew over the base. He heard the red, white and black Sikorsky MH-60 Jayhawk approaching long before he saw her. He sighed with relief as he watched her fly over the control tower where he was stationed. As the largest search and rescue helicopter at the base, Lieutenant Sara Chopper was a valuable asset to the West Florida Coast Guard. She was a very hard worker, who often had to be forced to take leave. It was clear that she loved her job, and for that reason, she'd progressed fast through the military ranks. She didn't like fighting, which is why she'd decided to join the Coast Guard instead of the army or navy, but Commander Grayson had seen her take down many drug dealers and illegal immigrants without a second thought for her own safety.

Commander Grayson drove out onto the helipad in time to see Lieutenant Chopper's patient being transferred into the waiting ambulance. The car had sustained massive internal injuries while working on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, during the hurricane that was rapidly approaching the coast.

Driving over to the helicopter, Commander Grayson saw that she looked extremely exhausted.

"How long has it been since you last slept, Lieutenant?" he asked her firmly.

"Over twelve hours, sir."

"Sign off from duty, get something to drink, and then go to your hanger. Hurricane Jasper should make landfall tonight, so all aircraft will be grounded until then tomorrow morning. I'll need you to be sharp for any rescues that may occur then."

Sara stifled the urge to yawn. "Yes, sir. Thank you, sir." She rolled away across the tarmac towards the café. She saw other search and rescue planes and helicopters landing and preparing to take shelter from the hurricane. The wind had really picked up since she'd landed.

At the café, Sara ordered a drink of oil. While she was waiting for it, one of the café workers refilled her fuel tank for her. She couldn't help flinching as the cold liquid rushed into her. She watched as some of the Petty Officers hurried around the base, boarding up windows and ensuring all loose items were secure.

"Gonna be quite a storm, ain't it?" a Lieutenant Commander said beside her.

"Yes," Sara agreed.

"I hear that you're up for promotion, Lieutenant," he continued. "Good luck with it."

"Thank you, sir."

An alarm began echoing all around the base. After it had rung three times, a voice rang out over the loudspeakers.

"All vehicles MUST go to their hangers and garages immediately! I repeat, all vehicles…"

The voice was drowned out by another strong gust of wind. Sara saw a forklift almost get blown off his wheels, but he just managed to save himself and scurry inside the shelter of a nearby building.

"Cancel my oil," Sara instructed one of the waiters. She then headed towards her hanger, on the other side of the main runway.

Sara had almost reached her hanger, when she saw Commander Grayson talking sharply to a Captain.

"…It's too dangerous! We only have one aircraft who is structurally capable of battling this storm, and I've ordered her to sign off from duty."

"Well, order her to sign back on!" the Captain shouted.

"She's gone well over her hours already!"

"There are seven lives at stake here!"

"Excuse me, sirs, but may I ask what the problem is?" Sara asked.

"Lieutenant Chopper," the Captain greeted her. "You're just the person we wanted to talk to. We've had an emergency call come through. A fishing trawler with six crew members on board has struck a reef, and he's sinking fast. You're the only aircraft capable of battling these winds, but your commander here doesn't want you to go."

Sara gave Commander Grayson a withering glance. "What are the co-ordinates, sir?"

Ten minutes later, Sara took off into the storm. Once she was safely in the air, she turned on her lights. Hundreds of feet below her, the ocean waves swirled up thousands of white caps. Then the rain started. Sara promptly lowered her visor to protect her eyes from the stinging rain. Her radar bleeped once, indicating that she was getting close to her target co-ordinates.

Soon, she was right over the spot where the trawler should be. Lowering herself right down so she was about fifty feet above the waves, she looked around in the fading light with her torches. There was no sign of the trawler. A sick feeling rose up in her tank. Was she too late?

"Mayday! Mayday!" a voice called weakly over her radio.

"This is the Coast Guard," Sara replied. "What are your current co-ordinates? Over."

There was no reply. But then, in the distance, Sara saw a flare shoot into the sky. Frowning with determination, she flew quickly towards it.

Sure enough, the flare had come from the sinking trawler. Sara lowered herself to a safe distance above the trawler. The Captain's mouth was now below sea level, which explained why he hadn't been able to respond to her on the radio. On the deck, six forklifts were gathered in a group, shouting urgently to Sara. Once Sara was in a good position above them, she lowered her sling.

One by one, Sara pulled all of the forklifts up inside of her. They kept shouting at her from her doorway, begging for her to save their Captain.

"Get back inside me!" Sara finally ordered them. At the same time, she lowered her hook. The Captain had sunk so far below the waterline, that only his eyes were still visible. The Captain's eyes sent her a pleading look.

Swinging her hook back and forth, Sara tried to catch it onto a railing of the Captain's deck. It finally caught onto something, but as soon as Sara tried to pull the Captain back up to the surface, whatever she'd caught onto broke, and the Captain sank down even further.

"No!" Sara shouted desperately when she saw the Captain's eyelids flutter closed.

"You've gotta save him!" one of the forklifts shouted desperately.

But it was too late. With a final gargle, the Captain disappeared beneath the waves. Tears filled Sara's eyes. During her six years in the Coast Guard, she'd never once lost anyone. In a state of shock, she methodically took note of the Captain's last know co-ordinates. Then, ignoring the shouts from the forklifts inside her, she closed the doors. With tears flowing from her eyes, mixing with the rain, she started to fly back towards the base.

…

The hurricane was still blowing fiercely as Sara approached the base with her grieving cargo. She was exhausted, both mentally and physically. The darkness of the night and the storm didn't help her feel any better.

"Commander Grayson?" she called tiredly over the radio. "This is Lieutenant Chopper. I have the base in sight. We'll need paramedics on stand-by for the six crewmen. Over."

"Reading you, Lieutenant Chopper. Copy that. What happened to the Captain? Over."

Sara hesitated before she answered. "I… I lost him… Over."

Commander Grayson also hesitated. "Come and see me in my office after you land. Over and out."

Sara landed a bit more roughly than she usually did on the helipad. The jolt rattling throughout her whole body made her realise that this wasn't just a horrendous nightmare. The base's paramedics ushered the crewmen out of her, escorting them over to the base hospital. Once they had gone, Sara made her way over to Commander Grayson's hanger, which also contained his office. She shook the rain off herself in the doorway.

"You wanted to see me, sir?"

"Come in, Lieutenant,"

Sara did so, and she parked in front of his desk, sighing despondently. Commander Grayson also sighed before he spoke.

"What happened?"

"I managed to get all the crewmen on board, but the Captain was sinking too fast. I should've hooked him first, and then rescued the crewmen. This is all my fault, sir."

Commander Grayson took a piece of paper out of a drawer. "Time to make out a report. Do you have the co-ordinates of the Captain's last known position?"

"Yes sir." And Sara told him.

"Good. Right, well, since this is the first time you've ever lost someone during a rescue, I'm going to give you a referral to see the base counsellor as soon as this storm is over."

Sara nodded slowly, but her mind was racing. Did Commander Grayson think that she was weak or something? That she'd never encountered death before? Begrudgingly, she took the referral from the Commander.

"Thank you, sir," she whispered.

"You may go now. Get some rest, and we'll discuss this again in the morning."

"Yes, sir."

Outside the Commander's hanger, Sara tore up the referral with her front wheels. She didn't need it. She didn't need any help. It wasn't like the base had never lost someone during a rescue before. But the look on the trawler Captain's face, and his last words as he weakly called out his mayday haunted her. In her mind's eye, she relived the tragedy over and over again as she made her way slowly through the driving wind and rain back to her hanger.

Once she was inside her hanger, she looked around. Her eyes settled on a photograph of herself as a young Petty Officer, with her first Commander. Her Commander had been so keen for promotion, that he'd made a mistake and it had cost the life of a light-aircraft that had run out of fuel. The plane had ended up crashing into the ocean, and the Commander's career had crashed too. He'd been demoted and, unable to cope with the humiliation that went with that, he'd ended up committing suicide.

Sara shuddered at the memory, and she realised that there was only one course of action open to her. She'd have to go AWOL. She knew the consequences she'd face if she was caught, but she needed to get away. The prospect of being blamed and demoted for her mistake frightened her more than the prospect of serving a prison sentence for going AWOL. Thinking quickly, she decided what she'd do. She'd fly north-west across the States. Alaska would be a safe place for her to hide until she'd decided where she'd go to make her new life.

Taking only her most valuable positions, including her service medals, she left her hanger. The rain was still pounding down, and the winds were much stronger now. For a moment, she hesitated, wondering if she'd be able to take off. Rolling to the furthest corner of the main runway, she started her engine. After a moment, she took off. The sound of the wind drowned out the sound of her loud engine and the distinct whirring of her long blades. She flew higher and higher until she'd completely disappeared into the heart of the raging storm.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: All recognisable characters belong to Disney. All OCs belong to me.**

Chapter 2

Commander Grayson was the first to discover that Lieutenant Chopper had disappeared. At first he panicked, believing that she might have been injured during the hurricane. But then, he'd discovered that her service medals were missing from her hanger. With a sinking feeling in his tank, he guessed what she'd done.

He didn't have any romantic intentions towards the helicopter. But as her Commander, he felt responsible for her. Later, as he was brooding over the situation in his office, he realised that maybe he should've handled the situation better. Like most helicopters, Sara was extremely introverted. Unlike planes, helicopters tended to keep their feelings and emotions bottled away inside of them, and that made them extremely wary and shy. They also didn't like having any sudden changes made to their routines, which made Lieutenant Chopper's disappearance even more remarkable. He could never have imagined her doing something as extreme as this. What had she been thinking? Then he realised that owing to her exhaustion, she mustn't have been thinking at all. She must've panicked and taken off without realising the seriousness of her actions.

After pondering over the facts carefully, Commander Grayson decided to give Lieutenant Chopper the benefit of the doubt. Taking a Leave Application form out of his desk, he wrote it up on Lieutenant Chopper's behalf, carefully backdating it to the night before. Knowing that this move could potentially cost him his own career, he took the completed form to the base Captain. The Captain was busy overseeing repairs to the base, but he paused when he saw Commander Grayson approaching him.

"Sir!" Commander Grayson said, saluting his superior. "Since Lieutenant Chopper was so distressed after the events of last night, I decided to give her a leave of absence, hence why she isn't here at the moment. She must have decided to leave before dawn. I have the form here, sir."

The Captain glanced at the form. "Three months leave? Isn't that rather extreme, considering the damage the hurricane left?"

"She needs the rest, sir. I advised that she go and visit her family."

The Captain nodded slowly. "Very well, Commander. You obviously thought she needed it, so I won't overrule your judgement. Carry on with your work."

"Sir!"

Once Commander Grayson was back inside his hanger, he breathed a sigh of relief. Now, his only hope was that Lieutenant Chopper would eventually come to her senses and be back at the base before her three month leave expired. After that, she'd be officially AWOL.

…

Meanwhile, Sara was still flying north-west. As a search and rescue helicopter, she couldn't fly very far or very fast. That's not what she'd been built for. Her fuel tanks were comparatively small for her size, meaning that she could only fly for a maximum of seven hours at a time between fuel stops. She preferred to fly at night, and sleep during the day wherever she could find somewhere quiet to land. The hardest part was finding suitable places to land for refuelling. A lot of the service stations in the small country towns hadn't been designed for aircraft, so they didn't supply the special aviation fuel she required. There were several times when she had to take diesel fuel instead, at the risk of making herself sick. When it did, she had to land so she could be sick, and then she had to wait until the nausea had gone before she could take off again. That slowed her journey time down even more. As she went on, she began to regret leaving the base, but she knew she couldn't go back. Ever.

Late one afternoon, Sara was given a particularly bad load of diesel. Despite that, she was desperate to make it to the next township by morning, and that meant flying directly over the mountain range that was in her way. At night. The idea of flying over a thousand feet in the dark while she felt so ill did not appeal to her, but she had no other alternative. As luck would have it, a heavy fog was also starting to set in. Sara turned on her lights. She had no other way of seeing how close she was to the rock formations that had created this range.

Sara had just cleared a rocky outcrop, when her nausea started getting worse. She glanced around, desperately searching for a place to land so she could throw up, but there was nothing but trees below her. She retched violently, trying desperately hard not to vomit. At the same time, alarms on her control panel started going off. Seconds later, thick black smoke started pouring from her engine, making her cough. She had no choice now. She had to land somewhere. Fast!

Her torch lights focused on what appeared to be a flat field for her to land on. Banking hard to the right, she descended and prepared to land. At the last second, she saw that the flat field was actually a runway, but she'd misjudged it and had descended a bit too low. She was now in danger of colliding with the cliff-face just below it. With a final effort, Sara thrust herself higher, pushing her sick engines hard. They squealed shrilly in protest, but miraculously, they responded. Sara lifted herself higher, but then her overstrained engines cut out, choked with diesel fumes. Gravity now took over, and Sara felt herself falling from the sky. With a terrified shriek, she crashed heavily onto the tarmac. Her front right wheel buckled on impact, causing her to land heavily on her nose. Sara skidded for a moment along the tarmac, sending up a shower of sparks. As soon as she'd finally stopped moving, she collapsed heavily onto her right-hand side, unconscious. Fuel began dripping from her mouth. A stray spark touched the fuel, causing it to ignite. But just as the fire flared up, it was immediately doused by a spray of foam…

…

Blade Ranger had been up late talking to Maru and Cabbie inside Maru's hanger, when they'd heard the sound of a large helicopter approaching in the distance.

"Nobody should be flying up here at night," Blade grunted. "Especially in these conditions."

"Maybe they're lost?" Cabbie suggested.

Shaking his head in disbelief, Blade moved outside the hanger, followed closely by Maru and Cabbie. They could hear the helicopter getting closer now, and the sound of its choking engine brought the rest of the Piston Peak Air Attack team out of their respective hangers.

"Whoever's flyin' up there sounds sick," Maru muttered disapprovingly. He realised that the helicopter would need medical help, and since he was the only one with any training in mechanics, he needed to be ready.

"Dude! Who's sick?" Blackout shouted. But his voice was drowned out by the ever approaching sound of the helicopter.

Suddenly, the sound of the helicopter's engine disappeared. Everyone held their breaths, waiting for the inevitable sound of a crash. When it didn't come, they all peered into the fog, silently praying that the helicopter would be okay.

"Maybe it's landed?" Pinecone whispered.

Before anyone else could say another word, a huge red, white and black helicopter came falling out of the fog. It gave an ear-piercing shriek before it landed heavily at the far end of the runway, barely making it onto the tarmac. The helicopter's front right-hand wheel apparatus gave out at the moment of impact, and it started skidding wildly across the tarmac on its nose. Seeing a trail of sparks coming from the helicopter's undercarriage, Maru grabbed the nearest fire extinguisher.

As soon as the helicopter came to a stop, it fell over onto its right-hand side, breathing heavily from exhaustion. Seeing a small fire erupt in front of the helicopter's mouth, Maru darted over to it. He extinguished the fire within a matter of seconds.

"Whoa!" Dynamite exclaimed. "I did not expect that!"

With their headlights blazing, everyone cautiously approached the helicopter. They were all amazed by the size of it. It was even bigger than Cabbie! Blade guessed that the helicopter's overall length was equal to Cabbie's wingspan, and that it would easily be capable of carrying either two cars or six forklifts inside of it. He could also read the writing painted on its side – US Coast Guard / Search and Rescue. The helicopter also had a military insignia painted on it, but having no military experience, Blade had no idea what it meant.

The others had started arguing over what to do with the helicopter, so Blade snapped out of his thoughts to take charge.

"Windlifter? We'll need your help to get it inside Maru's hanger. Can you smokejumpers please help Maru with whatever he needs inside his hanger? The rest of you need to keep well back, please."

Before long, the injured helicopter was safely inside Maru's hanger, with its front right-hand side propped up on several wooden crates that had been padded with blankets to make them more comfortable.

"We'll leave you to it, Maru," Blade said as he shooed the others away.

Nodding, Maru glanced up at the giant helicopter towering over him. He had no idea where to start! He realised that if the helicopter woke up while he was working on it, it might panic and accidentally injure him. To help prevent that, he began securing the helicopter to the concrete floor using a series of hooks and chains. He chuckled as he remembered the last time he'd had to secure someone to the floor of his workshop.

It had been over a year ago, shortly after the big fire had destroyed most of the park. Cabbie had been suffering from a bad engine for some time, and he'd refused to get it looked at. With Blade's help, he'd finally managed to trick him into going inside the hanger where, with they smokejumpers' help, they'd chained him down. Maru didn't blame Cabbie for not wanting to have his engine looked at. He couldn't think of one vehicle who enjoyed having someone poking around with their insides; himself included. But some took it better than others, like Dusty Crophopper. Maru sighed as he thought about the heroic little plane. It had been several months since they'd last heard from Dusty, but they knew he was busy with his racing now that the fire season was more-or-less over. That didn't stop Blade from going on his daily patrols, even when it snowed. That's what Maru liked about Blade. He was always ready for action at a moment's notice.

With the helicopter now completely secure, Maru drove up the ramp to take a look at its engine. As soon as he opened the inspection panel, he quickly slammed it closed. The helicopter was a female! He couldn't help blushing with embarrassment. It wasn't as though he'd never repaired a woman before, but he felt embarrassed for not figuring it out before. He'd just assumed that since the helicopter was so big and strong, it'd be a male.

Maru quickly left the hanger. As a rule, he never did anything medical on a woman without another one being present. Pausing outside his hanger, he looked around, weighing up his options. Patch needed to remain in the control tower, so he couldn't ask her. Lil' Dipper always talked too much, and he didn't like anyone chatting while he was trying to concentrate, so that ruled her out too. That only left Dynamite and Pinecone. As the leader of the smokejumpers, Dynamite was his first preference.

Maru knocked quietly on the door of the smokejumper's hanger. He needn't have bothered though. They were still wide awake, chatting excitedly about the helicopter's crash landing over cups of hot chocolate and marshmallows. Avalanche and Drip were also having a pillow fight, which explained the pile of fluff on the floor between them.

"Dynamite?" Maru called out. "Can I borrow you, please?"

"Sure, Maru. Anything to get away from this crazy mad-house." She drove over to him, closing the hanger door behind her. "'Sup?"

"The helicopter is a woman," Maru explained.

Dynamite immediately understood. "Oh! Let's go."

The helicopter was still unconscious when Maru returned to the hanger with Dynamite. Knowing that Maru didn't like anyone talking while he worked, Dynamite parked herself quietly in a corner to watch. She wasn't fazed by medical procedures the way most vehicles were.

After Maru had washed his arms thoroughly with alcohol, he used a cherry-picker to lift himself up high enough for him to be able to access the helicopter's twin engines, which were located just below her main rotor. The moment he removed the engine cover, he knew exactly what was wrong. Dynamite gasped when she saw dark yellow liquid splatter Maru's arms.

"What is that stuff?"

"Unburned diesel," Maru grunted in reply as he stuck one of his arms further inside the helicopter's engine. "I'm not surprised she's so sick! She must have been desperate, trying to fly on diesel. I'm amazed that she even could. Her poor engines though. They're completely choked up. We'll have to give her engines and her fuel tank a thorough clean out."

"We?"

"Of course. I'll need your help."

Maru was just removing his arm, when he felt the helicopter shiver.

"Is she waking up?"

"Yes."

Sure enough, the helicopter groaned just as Maru pulled his arm out of her. He wiped the diesel off with a rag. He hoped she hadn't been able to feel that.

…

Sara fought through the darkness that surrounded her. Then she felt it. Something, or rather, someone, was poking around with her innards. She couldn't help shivering.

"Is she waking up?" a masculine voice asked.

"Yes," a feminine voice answered.

The person poking around inside her engine removed their arm. A groan escaped through her lips. The thought of having someone she didn't know poking around inside her engine repulsed her. The nausea instantly returned, making her retch. She heard someone move a bucket beneath her mouth.

"Go ahead and vomit, dear," the feminine voice told her soothingly. "You'll feel much better afterwards."

Nodding, Sara finally allowed the vomit to come. She threw up into the bucket, hoping she didn't miss.

"That's it," the woman near her said. "Keep going. You need to get rid of all that awful diesel. There's no point hanging onto it. It hasn't done you any good."

Sara obliged, and she threw up three more times before the nausea finally subsided. With a deep sigh, she started to sink down onto her wheels, when a bolt of pain shot through her right-hand side.

"Ouch!" she yelped, leaping backwards. Or at least she tried to. Something was keeping her pinned down. Panicked, her eyes flew open. Seeing that she was in an unfamiliar hanger, she lashed out, fighting against her restraints.

"Let her go," the masculine voice said. "Those chains are designed to restrain a 747. She's not going anywhere. She'll wear herself out eventually."

Sure enough, Sara tired quickly. The restraints held her fast, and she was too exhausted to fight. Giving up, she settled back down.

"W-where am I?" she asked anxiously.

A navy-coloured forklift and a little yellow off-roader moved into her line of vision.

"You're at Piston Peak Air Attack," the off-roader replied. "My name's Dynamite, and this is our base mechanic, Maru. What's your name?"

"Uh… Sara." She decided not to identify her rank or surname for now.

"Well, Sara," Maru said, "I'm afraid I need to flush out your engines, and your fuel tank. Do you think you can tolerate that now that you're awake, or would you prefer for us to wait until you're asleep again?"

Sara hesitated. She didn't like the sound of either option. "Must you?"

"I'm afraid so. You've ingested a lot of diesel, and that's what's made you so sick. We need to clean it out of you."

Sara shuddered. "Please, wait until I'm asleep!" she begged.

"All right," Maru agreed, and he drove away to prepare his equipment. Dynamite also drove away, leaving Sara to herself.

Before long, Sara drifted off to sleep. The exhaustion and stress she'd been through over the last few days had finally caught up with her, and that helped lull her into a much deeper sleep than usual.

 **Please feel free to review my progress on this story so far. I greatly appreciate any feedback.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: All recognisable characters belong to Disney. All OCs belong to me.**

Chapter 3

Early the next morning, Blade decided to check on the helicopter before going on his morning patrol. He wasn't too surprised to find that Maru had chained it down, but he was surprised to find Dynamite in the hanger with them.

"How's our friend doing this morning?" Blade asked Maru.

"She's thoroughly exhausted," Maru replied. "She was full of diesel, so Dynamite and I cleaned out her engines and fuel tank thoroughly. Now I'm just repairing her wheel and rotor blades. We'll have to load her up with some medicine and extra supplements before we let her fly again."

Blade nodded slowly. Now he understood Dynamite's presence. He had to admit that he was surprised that the helicopter was a woman. "Well, I'm heading out. Let me know when she wakes up."

Maru waved in acknowledgment. He listened as Blade took off, before returning to his work.

…

Sara didn't wake up again until just before lunchtime. She breathed a small sigh of relief when she realised that her nausea had finally gone. But she couldn't understand why she was still chained down. She strained against the chains again, trying to escape.

"Take it easy, Sara," Maru told her soothingly. He moved into her line of sight. "Nobody's gonna hurt ya. Just relax."

"Why am I still chained?" Sara demanded to know. She continued fighting against her restraints.

"It's for my own safety as well as yours. I've just finished repairing your wheel, and your rotor blades. You'll probably be a bit sore for a while. So, you're a search and rescue helicopter for the US Coast Guard? Right?"

Sara stopped struggling, as she swore in her mind. She should've arranged to get a new paint job after she left the base.

Maru frowned at Sara's silence. Then he sighed. Yup! This helicopter was just like all the rest. Introverted. He decided to try again.

"So, where are ya from?"

Sara's military training kicked in. She'd been taught not to give away too much information when being questioned by a civilian. She decided to keep her answers vague. "I'm from the east coast."

"Are you transferring to the Californian Coast Guard?"

"No, I'm on my way to Alaska."

Maru looked at her sceptically. "You're on your way to Alaska? Right before winter?"

Sara flinched. Oh, she was so stupid! "I guess."

"Didn't realise they had a search and rescue base in Alaska"

Sara decided it would be safest not to answer any more questions. "Thank you for helping me. I really appreciate it. But I should be going soon, I think…"

Maru shook his head. "You're not going anywhere until I say so. I know you're feeling better, but you're still sick. I need to make sure that you're a hundred percent better before I let you leave here. Because you ingested so much diesel, I think it'll be best for you to go without any fuel today. Give your engines a chance to recover. You can have oil though, if you want it."

"Thanks, but all I want right now is to get out of these chains. Please."

Maru hesitated. "I'll talk to Blade first. See what he says." He left without giving Sara a chance to say another word.

Sara fought against her restraints again, but in her weakened condition, it was futile. With a heavy sigh, she gave up the fight. A few minutes later, Maru returned, followed by a small red helicopter.

"I'm Blade Ranger," the small helicopter said. "I'm in charge of this base. I understand that your name is Sara. How are you feeling now?"

"Much better, thank you. Can I be unchained now, please? I don't like being restrained."

Blade nodded to Maru. Sara breathed a heavy sigh of relief when she felt the chains loosen, followed by several solid thumps as they landed on the concrete floor.

"Right. You're free to move now," Maru said.

Sara tentatively rolled out of the hanger, looking around curiously. She wasn't sure what to do now that she was free from her restraints. One thing was certain. The Piston Peak Air Attack base was much, much smaller than her old search and rescue air base in Florida.

"So, uh… What do you guys do around here for fun?"

"Oh, we have plenty to do during our downtime," Blade replied.

"Usually, we just make our own fun," Dynamite added.

Sara turned to Maru. "Thank you for taking care of me."

"No problem," Maru said as he returned inside his hanger.

At that moment, an alarm sounded around the base. Sara heard a feminine voice ring out over the loudspeaker.

"All aircraft. We have a report of a spot fire caused by a backfiring car near Anchor Lake…"

"Let's go, everyone!" Blade said as he moved into a clear area so he could take off.

Sara watched excitedly as the entire Air Attack team took off into the sky. She was still watching them flying away when Maru parked beside her.

"You wish you could go with them, don'tcha?"

Sara jumped, surprised by the little forklift's presence beside her. "Uh… Yeah, I would like to go with them."

"Maybe you could transfer here?"

"Maybe…" Sara said wistfully. "Why don't you show me around the base? That is, if you've got nothing better to do."

"I'll just make up some more retardant, and then I can show you around," Maru agreed.

…

About an hour later, Blade, Windlifter and Lil' Dipper had just started to make their way back to the base after putting out the fire, when Patch contacted Blade over his radio.

"Blade? I've just received a report about a car that's fallen over a cliff at Piston Peak Lookout."

"Windlifter and I are on our way. Lil' Dipper, you head on back to base."

"Copy that," Lil' Dipper replied as Blade and Windlifter banked and flew away towards the lookout.

Before long, Blade and Windlifter had arrived at the lookout. Sure enough, a small green car was lying, unresponsive, on a tiny ledge about a hundred feet below the lookout. A broken safety railing told Blade the story of what had happened. Other cars were gathered near the edge; all anxiously trying to get a look. Blade flew closer to them.

"For your own safety, stay away from the edge!" he ordered them. "We'll take care of your friend." Blade turned to Windlifter. "Think you can get him?" he asked in a quieter voice.

Windlifter hesitated. Cliff rescues were the most dangerous type of rescue there was. A single blast of wind creating an updraught could easily bring down a helicopter twice his size. Plus, he didn't have the right equipment. His cable was too short, and his sling was designed for lifting downed aircraft, not cars.

Blade saw Windlifter's hesitation, and he guessed what the green helicopter was thinking. "Don't even try then," he ordered. Then he got onto his radio. "Patch? Send Sara up here immediately. I think she'll be able to help us."

…

Meanwhile, back at the base, Maru was showing Sara around. They returned to Maru's hanger, so he could show her around it.

"I'm guessing you've seen enough of this hanger to know what's here," he said.

"Well, this is the only hanger large enough to accommodate me, so I'll have to get used to it," Sara replied. "Hey, what are all these photos on the wall over here?" She indicated towards Maru's 'Wall', showing photos of various firefighting aircraft.

Maru let out a small sigh. "They all crashed fighting fires. They're the ones who didn't survive."

"Oh. We have one…"

"One what?" Maru prompted.

"Never mind," Sara sighed. She scolded herself again for almost letting something slip. She'd have to be even more careful.

At that moment, a yellow and red seaplane landed.

"Ha! Dipper's back," Maru said as he drove out of the hanger. Sara followed him. "Dipper! Where are the others?"

"Blade and Windlifter went to rescue a car that had fallen over a cliff. Cabbie's in his hanger, and the smokejumpers are just ensuring that the fire's completely out."

Maru huffed loudly. A moment later, the alarm sounded again.

"Sara?" the feminine voice said over the loudspeakers. "Blade wants you to join him at Piston Peak Lookout. He says you may be able to help them."

"On my way!" Sara said, excited that she might be able to help with something. She attempted to start her engines, but nothing happened. "Huh?"

Maru held up a fuel nozzle. "Forget somethin'?"

"Haha! Oh, yeah," Sara blushed. She rolled closer to the fuel pump, and Maru gently slipped the nozzle into her tank.

A few minutes later, Sara took off. Maru's directions to the Piston Peak Lookout were spot on, and so it didn't take her long to arrive there. Blade and Windlifter were hovering near the cliff. Sara frowned when she saw the stricken car.

"Windlifter doesn't have the right equipment for this sort of rescue," Blade explained. "I was hoping you would."

"I do…" Sara replied. "But I'll need someone to abseil down to that ledge…" She turned towards the crowded lookout. "Is anyone here a qualified abseiler?"

"I am!" a little forklift called out.

"Do you have your equipment with you?"

"No!"

"Right. I'll drop a harness down to you. Stay well away from the edge, everyone! This could get windy!"

The crowd quickly obeyed. Sara flew over the lookout, hovering while she lowered her abseiling harness, rope and a helmet down to the forklift.

"Once you're down on that ledge, I'll lower my rescue harness!" Sara shouted. "Make sure you secure it tightly around the car!"

The forklift waved to show her that he understood his task. Sara then flew a safe distance away from the cliff, to avoid getting caught in any sudden updraughts. She'd experienced one of those before during her early training with the Coast Guard, and it had almost caused her to crash. Since then, she'd always been extremely cautious during cliff rescues.

It wasn't long before Sara saw the forklift carefully abseil over the edge of the cliff. She was glad to see that although he was hurrying a bit, he was still being extra careful about where he put his tyres. Finally, he reached the car. Sara saw him wave to her, signalling that he was ready for her.

Taking a deep breath, Sara flew over. Once she was hovering in position above the ledge, she lowered her harness that was specially designed for carrying cars. From this angle, she couldn't quite see how the forklift was going, but she hoped he'd figure out how the harness went.

Finally, Sara felt two distinct tugs on her cable. She glanced over at Blade, silently asking him to confirm if the car was ready to be lifted.

"All clear!" Blade shouted.

"Copy that!" Sara replied. She took up the strain with her cable. The car wasn't heavy, but Sara didn't want to jerk it, or risk letting it slip out of the harness. Once she had the injured car away from the cliff, Sara glanced over at Blade.

"Where would be the best place to go for an ambulance to collect him?" she asked.

"The Lodge," he replied. "I'll escort you there."

Together, Sara and Blade flew slowly over to the Fusel Lodge. Blade ordered Patch to contact the Lodge to inform them that they were on their way to deliver an injured hiker for medical attention.

…

A couple of hours later, Sara and Blade returned to the base, to find everyone waiting anxiously for news on the injured car.

"He's been taken to hospital," Sara told them. "The paramedics were sure he'd make a full recovery, although he does have numerous internal injuries. None of them are life-threatening though, so we're all glad about that."

Blade watched Sara closely as she spoke to the others. He was beginning to wonder how he might be able to convince her to stay. Clearly, she lived for this sort of excitement, and it appeared to make her very happy. She was also a professional, trained by the Coast Guard, and with a bit of extra training, she could also potentially become a valuable firefighter for the park.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: All recognisable characters belong to Disney. All OCs belong to me.**

Chapter 4

 _"_ _Mayday! Mayday!"_

 _"_ _This is the Coast Guard. What are your current co-ordinates? Over."_

 _Struggling desperately, Sara swung her hook back and forth, straining to make it catch onto something, but she kept missing. The drowning trawler Captain glared up at her as if to say, "You're not really trying hard enough, are you?"_

 _"_ _Yes, I am!" Sara insisted. "I just need to get a little bit closer…"_

 _Suddenly, the Captain leapt out of the water, opening his jaws up wide. Sara let out a blood-curling scream as the Captain swallowed her whole…_

…

"Sara?"

Gasping, Sara snapped awake. She breathed heavily for a moment before swallowing. Maru was parked in front of her, gazing up at her with a look of concern on his face.

"You okay? I heard you scream."

"Uh… I just had a nightmare… I guess…" Sara replied sheepishly. Then, yawning, she asked, "What time is it?"

"Six-thirty. I might as well get us some breakfast, and then I'll check your engines."

"Must you?" Sara groaned. "They were fine yesterday."

"It's better to be safe than sorry," Maru replied. "We wouldn't want you to crash again." And he drove away.

Sara shivered violently. That nightmare had almost frightened her to death! She hoped that only Maru had heard her scream.

Maru returned a few minutes later with a large can of oil for Sara. He'd added some medicine and extra vitamins to it, hoping that Sara wouldn't be able to taste it. She didn't. Maru smiled when he saw her drain the can. He'd suspected that Sara wasn't the sort of helicopter who'd willingly take medicine. Blade was much the same way. He was good at looking after others, but not himself.

Once Sara had had enough breakfast (she ended up draining three large cans of oil), Maru fetched Dynamite before he set to work checking Sara's engines. That really annoyed Sara.

"Ow!" she yelped when Maru tightened a bolt. "Are you going to be much longer? I want to get going!"

"To Alaska?"

"Uh, yeah… That's where I'm going."

"Why?" Dynamite asked.

Sara gulped. She had no idea what to say in response to that. "Er…"

Fortunately, she was spared from answering by Patch, who made an announcement over the loudspeakers. "Attention everyone! Superintendent Jammer has entered the base!"

Maru slammed Sara's engine cover closed. "We'll finish this check-up later, Sara," he told her. "We'd better see what Ranger Jammer wants."

"I thought Patch just said that he was the superintendent?" Sara asked rolling out of the hanger.

"He is," Dynamite explained. "But he's spent most of his career here as a ranger, so everyone just calls him Ranger Jammer."

The entire Air Attack team gathered in the centre of the runway to wait for Ranger Jammer to arrive. Everyone that is, except Lil' Dipper. She came racing out of her hanger at the last minute, just as Ranger Jammer drove up.

"He did it!" she squealed excitedly. "My Dustmuffin won the race!"

"That's great, Dipper," Blade told her patiently. "You can tell us about it later. Now, what brings you here today, Jammer?"

"I've just come to formally meet your latest recruit," Ranger Jammer replied. He turned to Sara. "I'm so glad you've decided to join our little team. We've been needing a search and rescue helicopter for years, but none of those who were suitable wanted to live here permanently on the limited pay we all receive."

Sara glanced at Blade. "Uh… Actually, I'm not…"

"We were very fortunate to have Sara here yesterday to help us with that dangerous rescue," Blade interrupted. "Otherwise, we would've had to send for help, and who knows what might have happened to that poor car? How is he this morning, Jammer?"

"Last I heard, he was still in a serious but stable condition. He's having some surgery done today. Anyway, welcome to Piston Peak National Park, Miss…"

"Oh! Uh… Sara."

"Miss Sara. Well, I think I've taken up enough of your time, so I'd better let you all get back to work. Keep up the good work, and stay safe."

"We will, thank you, Jammer," Blade replied.

Sara waited until Ranger Jammer was out of earshot, before turning on Blade. "Why didn't you correct him by telling him that I'm only passing through?"

"Because I'm hoping you'll change your mind and stay," Blade replied calmly. "Jammer's right. We really could use your skills around here." And with that, he rolled away, leaving Sara at a complete loss for words.

…

Later, after Maru had finished checking Sara's engines, Blade offered to show her around the park. Lil' Dipper, Dynamite and Maru watched them take off.

"Aww! I think Blade's definitely sweet on her," Dynamite sighed wistfully.

"That's so sweet!" Lil' Dipper squealed. "I hope she stays. Blade needs a lil' love in his life!"

"Maybe we should help them?" Dynamite suggested.

Maru scoffed. "Leave 'em alone, guys! Sara is _definitely_ not interested in him!"

"And how would you know?" Dipper retorted.

"She's a search and rescue helicopter trained by the army! She's too serious for romance."

"Oh, I think there's a little bit of romance in all of us," Dynamite cooed.

Shaking his head, Maru returned inside his hanger. Trust the women to interfere when they shouldn't!

…

Meanwhile, Blade and Sara were hovering above the entrance to Augerin Canyon.

"This is where we train our new firefighters," Blade explained. "Learning how to negotiate around this gorge is just the first step in their training."

"Lucky I don't want to be a firefighter," Sara mused.

Blade frowned. Sara had missed his hint. He decided to try again. "With your training, I know you'd be good at it."

"Maybe…"

"You won't think about it?"

"Why would I? I am NOT staying here! As soon as Maru says I'm healthy enough to leave, I will!" And with that, she flew away.

"Well, maybe Maru won't say you're healthy enough to leave… For a while, at least," Blade muttered to himself before flying after her. One thing was certain. Sara was good at playing hard-to-get, even if she didn't know she was!

 **Sorry this chapter is a bit short. Been flat out working on my uni assignments. Been getting some great feedback though, so please review!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: All recognisable characters belong to Disney. All OCs belong to me.**

Chapter 5

Blade could hear Sara coming in to land long before he saw her. Now that she was starting to get familiar with the park, Maru had been sending her out every morning and evening for test flights, and to stretch her rotors. Blade was starting to get concerned about these test flights; not because he was concerned about Sara's safety, but because he was afraid she might decide to fly away to Alaska without saying goodbye.

Shaking his front, Blade rolled towards Cabbie's hanger. It was time he asked Cabbie a question he should've asked him the night Sara crashed into the base.

"Cabbie?"

"Yeah, Blade?"

"Sara's insignia… What does it mean?"

"She's a lieutenant."

Blade was surprised. "And you didn't salute her? She out-ranks you!"

"She didn't want to be saluted," Cabbie relied softly, breathing a small, sad sigh.

"Why not?"

"It's not for me to say, Blade."

"Please, Cabbie. We might be able to help her."

Cabbie looked uncomfortably down at the floor of his hanger. "She… She's gone AWOL, Blade."

"What?" Blade hissed in disbelief. "How do you know that?"

"Well, it stands to reason, doesn't it? A helicopter with US Coast Guard paintwork flying alone over these mountains at night, who later on says she's on her way to Alaska, and yet she won't tell us why. It doesn't take a genius to figure it out. Unless, of course, said genius has been blinded by other emotions…"

Blade gulped. "H-how did you know?"

"Blade, you blush at least five shades brighter whenever she's near you!" Cabbie quickly lowered his voice. "Speak of the devil…" He coughed, and glanced behind Blade with his eyes.

Cringing, Blade slowly turned around. Sure enough, Sara was parking directly behind him. He gulped, unsure of what to say. Fortunately, Sara didn't seem to notice his hesitation.

"Maru says I'm getting fitter by the day," she told Blade proudly. "I just wish he'd give me some indication on when I might be able to leave!"

"You've only been here for two days," Blade gently reminded her, hoping she couldn't see him blushing. "Maru will keep you here for at least a week, even if he has to chain you down again to achieve that."

Sara pouted. "Okay, okay! I'll be good for Maru." And she rolled away towards Maru's hanger.

Blade sank down heavily on his wheels. Behind him, Cabbie grinned. "What's with you all of a sudden, Blade? You're acting like a love-sick tractor!"

"You wouldn't understand, Cabbie. You see...there aren't too many female helicopters who are like her. I know that's how she was built, and that she can't help being who she is, but…I find that very attractive in a woman."

"Plus her resourcefulness must also be attractive to you," Cabbie added with a knowing wink. "I encourage you to pursue her, Blade, since she makes you go completely tongue-tied. That's a good sign. Just don't let it distract you from your professional work."

"I won't," Blade promised, smiling coyly.

Meanwhile, Sara had almost reached Maru's hanger, when she was ambushed by the smokejumpers.

"Ripppppaaaa!" Drip shouted as he jumped into the air directly in front of Sara.

"Argh!" Sara yelped, jumping backwards. "Oh! Don't do that! Please!"

"Yeah, Drip!" Dynamite agreed. "How many times have I told you not to do stunts in front of unsuspecting people?"

"Blackout told me to stop her so's we could talks to her!" Drip whined.

"Well, you stopped me, so what do you want?" Sara asked.

"We're having a bonfire this evening, here in front of the hangers," Dynamite explained. "Everyone's invited. We just wanted to make sure you got the invitation."

"Well, I have now, so thank you."

"Will you come?" Avalanche asked hopefully.

"Sure, why not?" Sara smiled. "Might be a bit of fun, and I have nothing better to do."

…

Later that evening, Sara joined the rest of the Piston Peak Air Attack team gathered on a patch of lawn near the runway. She felt a bit uncomfortable being there, since she wasn't really part of the team, so she hung out towards the edge of the group.

"Right! Here we go, guys!" Dynamite grinned, as Drip placed the final pieces of timber into position. "Anyone got the matches this time?"

"Here!" Lil' Dipper called out.

"Now what on earth would you be doing with matches?" Dynamite teased as she skidded the box over to Maru. Maru struck a match, and he tossed it into the timber.

Minutes later, everyone had settled down near the bonfire to cook marshmallows and drink soothing cups of hot chocolate. Sara kept her distance from the flames. Seeing her parked all by herself, Cabbie gave Blade a gentle nudge towards her.

 _Talk to her!_ Cabbie mouthed, giving Blade an encouraging wink.

Taking a deep breath, Blade turned towards Sara. He coughed softly to get her attention. She glanced down at him, blinking her large, hazel eyes.

"It…*cough*…It's a nice evening, isn't it?"

"It's not too bad, I suppose. Where I come from, there were many beautiful sunsets. I used to love the deep red ones. The sun's reflection would turn the water red and make it look like it was on fire…"

Blade waited to hear more, but Sara had closed up again. Then, in the bonfire's refection, Blade thought he saw a tear trail down Sara's cheek. But Sara turned away, and the fleeting moment passed.

"Where was 'home'?" Blade asked softly.

"Flor- Never mind," Sara sighed. "I'm not going back, so it hardly matters where I've been." She ground her teeth together, furious that she'd let her guard down so easily. She hoped Blade hadn't heard her.

But he had. _Florida_ , he thought, figuring it out.

Blade and Sara fell into an awkward silence. Seeing that, Dynamite nudged the smokejumpers into action. Moving discreetly behind Blade and Sara, the smokejumpers began singing softly, _Nights in White Satin (Notte Di Luce)_.

At first, Sara was a bit confused, but then she saw Dynamite deftly pushing Blade towards her. Now she knew what was going on. Blushing profusely, she diverted her gaze from Blade. She wasn't sure what to do in this situation. She'd only been involved in one relationship before in her life, and it hadn't ended well.

"Blade…" Sara began, but she was suddenly interrupted by the base alarm going off behind them.

Blade was immediately back into his professional self as Patch's voice rang out over the loudspeakers.

"I've just had a report of a spot fire from Dusty Crophopper. He's on his way for a brief visit, but he's just seen a campfire beginning to get out of control down in V6 Valley, near the park entrance. He said it won't take much to put out, but he's not carrying any retardant to deal with it himself."

"I'm on my way," Blade replied. "Dipper, you're on stand-by, so make sure you're ready to go."

"Aww! Can't I go with you, Blade? Please? It'll save sending back for me if you need me."

Blade sighed. He knew what Dipper was thinking. "All right," he reluctantly agreed.

Sara watched as Blade and Lil' Dipper took off into the fading evening sunlight. Dynamite parked beside her.

"He'll be fine, sweetie."

"Huh? What? I wasn't even thinking about Blade," Sara replied defensively.

"But he was thinking about you…"

Sara looked down at Dynamite. "You can stop with your match-making right now, Dynamite. I'm not interested in anyone, least of all Blade."

"Give me one good reason why you shouldn't be with Blade," Dynamite challenged.

Sara opened her mouth to reply, but at that moment, she couldn't think of anything. Heaving a sigh, she sank heavily down onto her wheels.

"Uh, huh! Yeah, I didn't think so," Dynamite winked. Then she drove away. "All right, smokejumpers! Let's finish off these marshmallows and hot chocolate, and then we can get to bed."

"Aww! But I wanna see Dusty!" Drip whined.

"I never said how long you had to take finishing them, did I?" Dynamite chuckled.

"Yeah!" Blackout cheered, making a dive for a new packet of marshmallows.

Sara returned to the edge of the bonfire.

"You can come closer," Maru invited her. "There's plenty of room, and you must be getting chilly."

"Thanks, but I'm quite comfortable her," Sara whispered.

Maru watched Sara closely for a moment. He couldn't help noticing that she tended to flinch whenever a stray spark drifted towards her.

"So, who's Dusty?" Sara asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Lucky Dipper's not here!" Pinecone exclaimed. "She'd spit her hot chocolate straight in your face for even daring to ask that!"

"Why?"

"You've never heard of Dusty Crophopper?" Dynamite asked in disbelief. "As in, _the_ Dusty Crophopper, the air racer?"

"Nope! I don't follow sport much."

"You must have heard of him, surely," Cabbie said.

"Maybe. The name does ring a bell. But if he's an air racer, what's he doing here?"

Maru took a deep breath before he replied. "Last summer, Dusty came here for some firefighter training with Blade. He was doing well, only he couldn't preform some of the harder tasks Blade required from him. Later, we found out that the reason Dusty couldn't push himself was because he'd damaged his gearbox while racing. Blade was badly injured trying to save Dusty from an out-of-control wildfire, but even that didn't slow him down. Later, he helped Dusty rescue some stranded tourists. Dusty ended up crashing after his gearbox failed completely. He was brought back here, and we all feared the worst. But Dusty pulled through, and he returned to racing. He still likes to help us out when he can."

"Now who's just being modest?" Cabbie chuckled. He turned to Sara. "Maru repaired Dusty, and he even managed to build him a brand new – sorry – better than new gear box, so he could continue racing, which is Dusty's first love."

"Dipper's his second," Dynamite teased.

Sara chuckled, which made Dynamite beam. That was the first time she'd seen Sara actually laugh. She knew there was more to this helicopter than just her tough exterior. Sara had obviously created a harsh, protective barrier around herself long again. Now, they just needed to find a way to break through it, and uncover the real Sara underneath.

Dynamite knew that wouldn't be easy. They were still working on Blade's protective barrier, so she hoped that Sara might open up to her a bit easier and a whole lot sooner.

Rachel Leahcar, _Nights in White Satin (Notte Di Luce)_ Shooting Star, Universal Music Australia, 2012.


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: All recognisable characters belong to Disney. All OCs belong to me.**

Chapter 6

Drip was just tossing some more wood onto the bonfire when Blade and Lil' Dipper arrived back along with Dusty Crophopper. Sara watched curiously as the little orange and yellow single-engine crop-duster/racer/firefighter touched down smoothly on the runway behind Lil' Dipper.

"Hey guys!" Dusty called out cheerfully. "How's everyone doing?"

"Just great!" Avalanche shouted.

Sara cringed. She didn't like shouting for no good reason, and Avalanche could shout the horn off a tractor.

"Come join us," Dynamite said to Dusty. "There's plenty of room."

Dusty rolled over to the bonfire. He gazed up at Sara with his pale blue eyes. "Hi. You must be Sara. Blade and Dipper told me all about you."

"T-they did?" Sara gasped. "W-what d-did they tell you?"

"Only that you'd crashed here a couple of days ago, and that you're a search and rescue helicopter. But they didn't really need to tell me that."

Sara visibly relaxed. "Oh. Right. Yes." She looked away, suddenly tongue-tied. That normally didn't happen to her, even with guys she liked. Perhaps it was the fact that Dusty was a celebrity. She sighed softly.

Dusty cleared his throat. "So, what's it like working for search and rescue?"

"Oh, it's much the same as firefighting, I guess. You just do your job and hope everything goes well…" Sara's voice trailed off as she said that. She was thinking about the drowned captain again.

Dusty caught sight of the glistening tear that crept slowly down Sara's cheek. Something had clearly upset her, and he wasn't sure if he should say anything about it. He wisely decided to change the topic. "Uh…how about a drink of hot chocolate?"

"Thanks." Sara smiled a little.

On the other side of the bonfire, Blade and Lil' Dipper were toasting marshmallows. Cabbie nudged Blade.

"I think you and Dipper had better watch out," he whispered. "Looks like Dusty and Sara are really hitting it off."

Blade felt himself bristle when he saw Dusty and Sara talking and laughing together, but he immediately chided himself. After all, Sara wasn't his girlfriend, just like Dusty wasn't really Dipper's boyfriend. Sure, Dipper had a huge crush on the little airplane, but that didn't mean they were actually a couple. Not yet anyway. And although Sara got him all excited and worked up, she didn't seem to care about reciprocating those same feeling.

Blade sighed tiredly. The fire crackled in front of him, sending a stray ember skyward. Blade followed it with his eyes. It was time for him to do something about Sara.

"Uh, Blade?" Pinecone called. "I don't think there's much left of that marshmallow…"

Yelping, Blade pulled his stick out of the fire. The sudden movement caused his melted marshmallow to fall into the fire. All that was left was a gooey, sticky blob of sugar. The flames around it turned blue as they continued melting it into liquid.

"Er… Can I have another marshmallow please, Dynamite?"

"Only if you promise to actually eat this one," she replied with a knowing wink. With a low grunt, Blade poked his stick into the bag of marshmallows.

…

The next morning, after Blade had returned from his early morning patrol, he shut himself inside his hanger. He had an important phone call to make, and he didn't want to run the risk of being overheard. After pausing to think for a moment, he opened the door again, just enough to allow him to hang up his 'Do Not Disturb' sign.

Once he was sure that he wouldn't be disturbed, Blade dialled the number he'd found during his online search the night before. After a few seconds, a male with a military-sounding voice answered his call.

"Clearwater Search and Rescue base, Commander Grayson speaking."

"Hi. I'm just wondering if you know anything about a Sikorsky MH-60 Jayhawk search and rescue helicopter by the name of Lieutenant Sara? I'm afraid I don't know her surname."

There was silence on the other end for a moment, then Commander Grayson spoke again. "Can I phone you back? I already have your number."

That sounded really odd, but Blade could sense a trace of fear in Commander Grayson's voice. "Uh… Sure."

Commander Grayson hung up the phone. Blade sighed despondently. _Now what?_ he thought. He didn't know when Commander Grayson would phone him back, and he didn't dare let anyone else answer the call, just in case…

Fortunately, Blade's phone rang just a few minutes later. He answered it after the first ring. "Commander Grayson?"

"Yes. Sorry, I couldn't speak on my office phone. It's been bugged for security reasons, as has my whole office. I'm on my personal phone now, behind my hanger. Look, can I have your name, please?"

"Err… Blade. Blade Ranger."

"Blade. Right. Uh, you say you know Lieutenant Sara Chopper?"

"Uh… Yeah, I guess."

"Oh, thank goodness! Where is she?"

"Before I tell you that, can you please tell me why she left your base? We can't get much out of her."

"It was partially my fault. We had a category four hurricane approaching, and an emergency call came in. Sara had already worked well over her maximum hours, and she was exhausted, but I let her go anyway. She says she made a mistake, and she was unable to save the drowning captain. I gave her a referral to see the base counsellor, but when I went to see her the next morning, I found that she'd gone AWOL. She must have taken off during the hurricane, otherwise someone would've heard her. Anyway, I decided to cover for her by forging papers to say that I'd given her three months leave. The Captain bought my story, but if he finds out that Sara's gone AWOL, we'll both be court-martialled, and possibly be thrown into prison for a very long time with our careers in tatters. So please. Tell me where she is so I can at least come and talk to her. I need to convince her to come back before it's too late."

"How long has she been AWOL?"

"Just over a week."

"Okay. We still have plenty of time then. She's at Piston Peak Air Attack in Piston Peak National Park, California. She crashed here three nights ago and-"

"Crashed?" Commander Grayson exclaimed. "How? What happened? Is she hurt?"

"She was flying on diesel fuel because she couldn't get any aviation fuel," Blade calmly explained. "Her engines cut out just as she was coming in to land. She had a heavy landing and damaged a couple of her rotors, but our mechanic was able to fix her up in no time, and she's flying soundly now."

Commander Grayson breathed an audible sigh of relief. "Sorry. As her Commanding Officer, I'm responsible for her welfare. My interest in her is purely professional. She was on the brink of promotion before all this happened. I'd hate to see her throw it all away because she wasn't getting the psychological help she needs. I've seen this sort of thing happen to too many fine young men and women who serve in our armed forces. It can destroy them if they let it get to them. Sorry, I know I'm going on about all this…"

"I understand. Look, I'll do my best to keep her here on the pretext that she's still recovering from her accident. You'd better hurry though. She could soon realise that we're tricking her into staying longer. She's keen to get to Alaska."

"I'll be on the next available flight," Commander Grayson promised. "Please, don't tell her that I'm coming."

"I wasn't going to."

"See you soon."

There was a click as Commander Grayson ended the call. Blade hung up his phone with another heavy sigh. So, _that_ was why Sara had fled. She couldn't live with the guilt of not being able to help save someone's life. Blade was probably the only one who could fully sympathise with her on that. After all, he'd done the same thing after Nick had died, for the exact same reason. Somehow, knowing that they shared similar pasts made Blade feel closer to Sara than ever before. Maybe Cabbie was right. Maybe he and Sara were perfect for each other.

In the distance, Blade heard the base alarm ring out. Leaving his hanger, he went to find out what was going on.

"All aircraft, please be advised that we've just received an urgent call from the Lodge," Patch said over the loudspeakers. Blade saw everyone pause what they were doing to listen. He did the same. "It seems that there is a child missing. I repeat. We have reports of a missing child somewhere between the Lodge and Augerin Canyon. The child is described as being a male, dark green Mercedes Benz C class, and about three years old. He was out for a drive with his parents as part of a tour group, and he seems to have driven off the main road leading to Whitewall Falls without anyone seeing him."

Everyone turned towards Blade, waiting for his instructions. Blade sighed. He'd only ever had to conduct one search team before during his time in charge of the Air Attack, and that had ended up with the lost car managing to find her way back to the lodge. But this… A lost child… It made him feel sick in his tank.

Someone rolled into his field of vision. Looking up, he saw Sara looking at him anxiously. Blade smiled a little when he felt his confidence returning. Sara. Yes. They needed her now more than ever.

"I want you with us this time, Sara," he told her firmly. "You at least have the right equipment for this kind of work. Windlifter, Dipper and Dusty, I want you to search down near the Lodge. Make sure you spread yourselves out. This child will be hard to find because of his colouring. Sara… I want you with me. Cabbie? You and the smokejumpers need to stay here, but be ready to come and help at a moment's notice. We may need to drop the smokejumpers if this kid ends up in a dangerous place. Let's go everyone!"

With a deafening roar of engines starting up, Windlifter, Lil' Dipper and Dusty took off, heading towards the Lodge. Sara looked at Blade again.

"We need to find that boy before it gets dark," Blade told her seriously. "A C class would have little hope of surviving now that the nights are getting colder. Plus, no aircraft is allowed to fly half an hour after sunset, for safety."

"I understand," Sara agreed. "You should know that I have a thermal imaging camera."

Blade's eyes widened in surprise. "Then let's go!"

They both started up their engines, and they took off into the clear blue sky. Blade led the way to Augerin Canyon. That was where they'd begin their search. For once, Blade and Sara were thinking the exact same thing. Find the little boy and hope that he hadn't been injured.

 **Please review! I'm having so much fun writing this story, so I hope you're enjoying it too.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: All recognisable characters belong to Disney. All OCs belong to me.**

Chapter 7

Using her thermal imaging camera, Sarah scanned the area south of Anchor Lake and Augerin Canyon. Blade hovered nearby, observing her closely. He rather liked her methodical way of searching. She remained calm, and only showed frustration whenever she thought she'd found the missing child, only to find that it wasn't.

"I wish we could do this at night," Sara said, sighing with frustration. "I'd make the task so much easier if there was nobody else out on the roads!"

"You know the rules, Sara," Blade told her evenly. "No flying at night. Your crash landing is why we don't."

"You had to bring that up, didn't you?" Sara snapped.

"The truth hurts sometimes."

Scowling, Sara turned around, focusing her thermal imaging camera on a new search area. Blade glanced around. It was starting to get dark.

"Windlifter?" he said over the radio.

"Receiving you, over."

"End the search in your area within the next half hour, then fly back to base."

"Windlifter copies. Out."

Blade flew closer to Sara. "We need to start about thinking about heading back too."

"No! We have to find this child before anything happens to him. It'll be cold tonight, and if he spends the night out here all alone, his chances of survival will be dramatically reduced."

Blade was incensed. "Lieutenant Sara Chopper! I gave you an order!"

"I don't take orders from a civilian… What did you just call me?"

Both helicopters froze, staring at each other in disbelief. Sara could feel her engine beginning to compress with panic and fear, while the fuel in her tank swirled around, making her nerves race.

Blade felt sick too. How could he have been so stupid? He rarely lost his temper, and to do so while screwing up so badly just wasn't him. Plus, he'd made a promise to Commander Grayson to keep Sara there until he arrived. Now he was worried that she'd take off.

"H-how did you find out?" Sara finally asked.

Blade quickly thought of an excuse. "Cabbie. He was in the military, and he recognised your insignia."

"Oh."

Blade breathed a silent sigh of relief. She'd bought it.

Meanwhile, Sara was racking her memory to see if she'd ever told Blade her surname. She concluded that she must have while she was recovering from her crash. Otherwise, how else could he have known?

"Let's go back," Blade said softly. Seeing Sara hesitate, he added, "You must be getting low on fuel by now."

Sara quickly checked her panel. "Yeah. I am."

They flew back to the Air Attack base side-by-side. Blade was relieved to see that Windlifter, Lil' Dipper and Dusty had already arrived back safely. Maru was helping them refuel, while the smokejumpers passed out warm cans of oil. Dynamite placed a can of oil in front of Sara, but she was too distracted to drink it. All she could think about was the poor lost boy.

"Let's get to bed early tonight," Blade suggested. "That way, we can resume the search again at first light."

Everyone agreed with Blade's suggestion. Once they'd had their dinner, everyone bid each other goodnight, before going to their respective hangers. Sara reluctantly went inside Maru's hanger. Everything inside her was screaming for her to resume searching for the lost boy, but she knew just how furious Blade would be if she defied him. She'd been trained to obey orders without question, and whether she liked it or not, that's what she had to do.

From the doorway of his office, Maru watched Sara fall unhappily to sleep. He knew that the search had tired her far more easily than it should have, indicating that she still hadn't fully recovered from his crash. Maru decided that if she didn't wake up easily in the morning, he'd tell Blade that she wouldn't be able to join in the search with them tomorrow, because she needed more rest.

…

 _Squinting into the fading sunlight that had settled over the ocean, fifteen-year-old Sara frowned when she saw the flames dotting the horizon. Just minutes earlier, she'd witnessed the explosion from the oil rig that sat about three miles out to sea. Only one thought crossed her mind. John. Her older brother had landed there only minutes before the explosion. It was his job to transport the oil rig workers to and from the rig. It was the job their father did, and it was what Sara was in training to do once she was old enough. But now, Sara was sitting on the shore watching the horrific scene unfolding before her very eyes._

 _Without thinking, Sara started up her engines and she took off into the air. Flying as fast as she possibly could, she raced towards to burning oil rig._

 _"_ _John!" Sara shouted as she approached. Using her torch, she scanned the rig, looking for any signs of her brother. She was shocked to see so many dead cars and forklifts on the deck of the rig. Many had simply been burned alive. Quite a few of the workers had been blown off the rig by the force of the explosion, and their bodies were now floating in the water. Sara usually didn't show her emotions, but she couldn't help shivering when she saw the carnage below her. "John!" she screamed desperately. There was no answer._

 _Flying to the other side of the rig, Sara continued her search. In the distance, she could hear the familiar sounds of approaching engines coming from the Coast Guard patrol. She knew they were on their way to help, and that as a civilian, she'd soon be ordered out of the airspace. But she knew she wouldn't be able to leave until she'd found out where her brother was._

 _"_ _John!" Sara screamed again. All of a sudden, she heard a rumble coming from the rig. Before she even had a chance to react, the entire rig was engulfed in a second and much more powerful explosion, ending any hopes of finding anyone who might still be alive._

 _The force of the explosion suffocated Sara's engines, and she felt her entire right-hand side burn with a heat so fierce that it felt like ice. The next thing she knew, she felt herself falling towards the sea. She was unconscious long before she hit the water…_

 _When Sara finally woke up, she found herself in hospital. Her parents told her that she'd been kept in a coma for three months, so the doctors could repair her burned side. She was lucky, they said. Nobody else survived._

 _"_ _J-John?" Sara asked weakly, hoping that he'd somehow managed to escape the flames too. But her parents' faces told her the truth long before they even spoke._

 _"_ _I'm sorry, Sara," her mother told her gently. "They never found any trace of him. He was burned into ashes instantly."_

 _Sara's only response had been an anguished, piercing scream that lasted until long after a nurse had given her a sedative._

…

Sara jolted awake. She was panting heavily and shivering. She felt feverish too. The nightmare of her memories had obviously woken her up. She just hoped that she hadn't screamed in her sleep. She didn't want to have Maru fussing over her like her had the last time she'd suffered a nightmare. However, she needn't have worried. The sound of heavy rain on the tin roof would've been enough to drown out any scream. Thunder rumbled in the distance, followed a few seconds later by a flash of lightning. Sara immediately thought about the lost boy.

 _Poor fellow. He must be cold, hungry and terrified_. Reflecting on her nightmare, Sara knew what she had to do. It was the reason why she'd become a search and rescue helicopter in the first place. She had to honour the memory of her brother by saving as many people as possible. No matter what Blade said, she couldn't leave the boy out there one minute longer than necessary.

Reversing out of the hanger, Sara rolled to the edge of the runway. Even with the storm, she was sure someone might hear her take off. Throwing caution to the wind, Sara started up her engines. The roar they produced was indeed louder than the storm, but that was only because she was so close to them. Turning on her lights and her thermal imaging camera, Sara took off into the dark night and pelting rain.

 **A/N: I'm sorry it's taken me a while to update this story. I suffered a bit of writer's block on it, and I've been focusing on my other FanFic, Lightning and the V8 Supercars. I will try to update this one a bit more often. Thanks to everyone for their reviews. I really appreciate the feedback I receive.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: All recognisable characters belong to Disney. All OCs belong to me.**

Chapter 8

A distant, piercing scream woke Dusty. Rain pelted down on the roof of his hanger, making it impossible for him to hear anything else. But that scream… Dusty's curious nature got the better of him, and so he left his hanger to investigate the scream.

Outside, Dusty could barely see anything in the driving rain, but he could see some distant lights at the end of the runway. A moment later, he hear a distant whirring sound as a helicopter took off. From the dull roar of the engines, he knew it could only be Sara. He shook the water out of his eyes as she took off into the stormy night. He couldn't believe it! Blade had given them all strict orders, and nobody needed to tell him the importance of not flying at night. At the same time, he knew he needed to follow her to see that she came to no harm. For a moment, he wondered if he should tell Blade, but he didn't want to be a victim of Blade's wrath, so he settled on a middleman.

A few minutes later, Dusty gently shook Maru awake with the tip of his right wing. "What?" Maru snapped with annoyance.

"Sara's gone, Maru. Tell Blade I'm going after her."

Maru was still waking up. "Are you crazy?"

"Yes. Otherwise, I wouldn't be a champion air-racer." And with that, Dusty taxied onto the runway. As he took off, he suddenly realised that he had no idea where he should start searching for Sara. Instinct told him to try searching Augerin Canyon first, so banking left, he flew that way.

…

Meanwhile, Sara was using her thermal imaging camera to scan the canyon more closely for the missing boy. The pounding rain was nearly blinding her, but she persisted in her search. She was starting to suspect that the boy might be hiding in a cave somewhere.

In the distance, Sara heard the sound of an engine approaching her. Fearing that it might be Blade, she quickly thought about what she was going to say to him. She breathed a small sigh of relief when she saw that it was a plane. As it emerged out of the darkness, she recognised Dusty.

"Thank goodness it's only you!"

"It won't be me for much longer," Dusty replied as he began banking around her. "Blade's on his way. You need to come back with me."

Sara shook her front. "Not until I've found the boy."

"We can resume the search tomorrow."

"He won't last that long! Do you have any idea what hyperthermia is? He could be injured or anything!"

Dusty sighed. He knew that Sara was right, but at the same time, orders were orders. "I'll tell you what? I'll help you search for half an hour, but only if you come back with me after that."

Again, Sara shook her front. "I'd rather search alone, thank you."

"Why do you care so much about this boy anyway?" Dusty snapped, losing his patience.

Sara whipped around to face him, while still hovering. "I gather that you don't have any siblings?"

"No, I don't."

"Then you can't imagine the pain of losing one."

Dusty was so startled, his engine almost shut down. He shook himself, and it returned to full power. "What?"

"Just leave me alone! Please!"

At that moment, Sara saw something on her thermal imaging camera. She felt sick in her tank when she saw it. "Dusty… I've found a tyre."

Flying lower to take a closer look, Sara knew at once that this wasn't just an old, discarded tyre. This one was a child-sized one, and it had been broken at the axle. With tears in her eyes, Sara looked up at Dusty.

"This is where the boy fell. He must have landed in the river, and been carried downstream."

Dusty didn't know what to say.

…

"WHERE DID THEY GO, MARU?" Blade shouted above the roar of the storm.

"I don't know, Blade," the tiny forklift replied. "East, I think. Towards Augerin Canyon."

"No!" Blade exclaimed as he took off. He tried not to fear the worst as he flew as fast as he could towards the notorious canyon.

Halfway to the canyon, Blade heard a single engine approaching him. It had to be Dusty.

"Dusty!" he shouted as the little plane flew into view. "Where's Sara?"

Before Dusty could reply, they both heard Sara's powerful twin engines approaching.

"Get back to base, Dusty," Blade instructed firmly. "Sara! Get back to base too! We'll talk once you get there."

Dusty and Sara obeyed. Before long, they had all landed safely at the Air Attack base.

"Right, what do you two have to say for yourself?" Blade demanded to know.

"Don't blame Dusty," Sara replied. "He followed me because he was worried about me. I made the decision to resume the search on my own. But it appears we're too late…" And with that, Sara opened the door to her cargo bay. Maru's eyes enlarged when he saw the sheared off tyre and axle inside her. With much care and respect, he removed the tyre and placed it gently on the rain-soaked tarmac in front of Blade. Blade sighed sadly. Their hopes of finding the boy alive were now greatly diminished.

"We'll have to tell the parents," he said quietly. "If they can confirm that the tyre belongs to their son, I'm afraid our 'Search and Rescue' will become a 'Search and Recovery'."

The group broke up, all heading back to their respective hangers to wait for morning. As soon as Sara thought she was alone, she burst into tears.

But she wasn't alone. Maru was parked in the doorway, watching her closely. Clearly, there was more to this than what she was letting on. After all, she was a military-hardened Search and Rescue helicopter. Like all military personnel, she'd been trained not to get emotional about death. It was just a part of her job. She wasn't supposed to be crying like this. For once in his life, Maru didn't know what to do.

 **Sorry for the long wait. I had writer's block with this story, but now I know where it's heading again. Enjoy and please review! The reviews help keep me motivated, so they're greatly appreciated.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: All recognisable characters belong to Disney. All OCs belong to me.**

Chapter 9

By morning, the storm had passed. Sara was still fast asleep when Maru went to find Blade. He wasn't hard to find, as he was busy scolding Dusty for taking off the night before without telling him anything.

"And what do you think might have happened if you'd crashed again, huh?"

"Blade, I know the risks. I was being careful when I flew out."

"Were you now? Huh! Be that as it may, it was still very irresponsible of you. Unfortunately, since you're only here on a visit, I can't officially reprimand you."

Dusty breathed a small sigh of relief.

"I'll leave that up to Mayday," Blade added sharply.

Dusty pouted. Maru cautiously interrupted.

"Blade, I wanna word with you."

Blade grunted. "What about?"

"Sara."

"You can go, Crophopper," Blade told him firmly. Cringing, Dusty headed slowly back to his hanger. Unfortunately for him, Maru and Blade moved well out of earshot. Sighing, he was about to enter his hanger, when he heard Lil' Dipper calling for him.

"Yoohoo! Dustmuffin!"

"Oh, shoot!" Dusty muttered to himself. "Not again!" Moving quickly, he taxied out onto the runway, and he took off. Seconds later, Dipper eagerly followed him into the sky. The smokejumpers watched them leave.

"My money's on Dusty to get away," Avalanche chuckled.

"Nah, I think Dipper will catch him," Blackout added. "He might be a champion air racer, but she's persistent. She'll get him."

…

Meanwhile, Maru and Blade were talking quietly.

"…and she cried herself to sleep last night. Now, you know as well as I do that those trained in the military are discouraged from crying," Maru finished.

"Thank you for your concern, Maru," Blade replied. "As it happens, I know a lot more about Sara and her past than you do. I'm not sure how much I should tell you, but she is grieving. Her commanding officer is coming to talk to her. He should arrive today, actually. In the meantime, we mustn't be too hard on her."

"Are you going to punish her for taking off last night?"

Blade thought for a moment. "Yes. She is going to tell the boy's parents about what she found last night."

Maru frowned. "I don't see how that's a punishment."

"Oh, it will be. Believe me." And with that, Blade moved towards Maru's hanger.

Sara was only just starting to stir when Blade and Maru entered the hanger. She looked at them through sleepy eyes.

"Morning," she muttered.

"We've been waiting for you to wake up," Blade said, frowning. "A small group of us are going to fly down to the lodge, to report what you found last night to Superintendent Jammer. I've already phoned the police. A unit from the missing persons department will meet us there, and they'll take the wheel away for forensic examination."

"Do I have to go?" Sara asked quietly.

"Yes," Blade replied, in his firmest tone.

Sara sighed with frustration. She'd never had to do anything like this before. In all the years she'd been rescuing vehicles at sea, she'd never had to report a fatality. That was until… Sara shook herself. She had to stop thinking about that! And she had to get away from Piston Peak as soon as possible.

…

Later that morning, Blade, Dusty and Windlifter escorted Sara down the valley to the lodge. Sara was shivering as she landed. She'd made her decision. Once she'd delivered her sad news to the boy's parents, she would leave. She knew she could easily overpower the others if need be, but she didn't want to have to resort to violence. Speed would have to be her ally.

Seeing three police investigators parked alongside Superintendent Jammer, Sara almost panicked. _Just get through this, and then you can go,_ she told herself.

"I'm Blade Ranger," Blade said, introducing himself to the investigators. "Where are the boy's parents? We've found something that we're hoping they'll be able to identify."

"They're just over here," Superintendent Jammer said. He indicated to the concierge, who escorted two Mercedes-Benz cars over to the group. Both cars looked extremely concerned, and one of them, obviously the mother, had tear stains on her hood. Sara gulped. She couldn't let anyone see her panic. She had to hold herself together just a bit longer…

"These are the boy's parents," Superintendent Jammer said. He turned towards them. "These aircraft are from our Air Attack team. They've been searching for your son, and they say they've found something they need you to identify."

Trembling, Sara reluctantly opened her cargo bay door. Seeing the broken off wheel and axle, the mother screamed.

"Yes, that is our son's," the boy's father confirmed as he tried to shield his wife from the grim find. "He was wearing 'Ace' tyres when he went missing."

"Thank you," one of the investigators said. He turned towards Blade. "We'll need to know exactly where you found that wheel, so we can continue with the investigation."

"Sara found it," Blade replied.

Sara took a deep breath. She knew she couldn't wait around to help with the investigation, or her cover would be blown. She'd already started to retreat, hoping to make her escape as quickly and as quietly as possible. But first, she had to discreetly remove the boy's wheel…

"LIEUTENANT CHOPPER!"

Sara froze. She knew that voice all too well. _Commander Grayson? How on earth did he find me here?_

"We need to have a little chat, Lieutenant," Commander Grayson said as he drove into Sara's peripheral vision. "Shall we go somewhere quiet? Or would you prefer to discuss everything out here in the open?"

Sara glanced around. Everyone inside the Fusal Lodge was now watching the exchange. Sara began hyperventilating. She couldn't think. She couldn't move. Her only thought was that she had to get out of there. Fast.

Adrenalin finally kicked in. Moving much faster than she'd ever moved before, Sara whipped around, almost smashing her tail into Windlifter's blades as she made for the exit. The counter-effect of the move was enough to send the missing boy's wheel flying out of her open cargo bay, much to the horror of everyone who saw it.

"LIEUTENANT!" Commander Grayson shouted as he hurried after her. Blade, Dusty and Windlifter quickly followed suit, leaving the police investigators and Superintendent Jammer to deal with the wheel and the horrified guests.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" Sara screamed as she powered up her engines.

Realising that he couldn't prevent Sara from taking off, Commander Grayson turned to look for help. Seeing a rope lying beside the runway, he snatched it up and quickly formed a loop in one end. He turned to see Blade and Dusty trying to get in Sara's way to prevent her from taking off. Blade had already powered up his engines as well, ready to take off after her.

"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" Sara shrieked at Blade. "You told him I was here, didn't you?"

"I was only doing what I knew was in your best interest!" Blade retorted. "You didn't have to go AWOL!"

Sara froze again. Tears were blurring her vision, preventing her from seeing straight. "How dare you," she said in that cold, soft tone that people only use when they're absolutely furious with someone. Blade, taken aback, could only blink. Seizing her opportunity, Sara finally took off. But just as her wheels left the ground, she felt something catch and tighten around her left-hand horizontal stabilizer.

"What are you doing?" Dusty shouted. "You're gonna get yourself killed!"

Sara felt whatever was around her stabilizer slacken. Realising that she was finally free, she took off into the sky. She heard Blade start to follow her, but when he realised that she was flying much too fast for him, he backed off, ending the chase.

…

Blinded by her tears and anger, Sara flew south-west through V6 Valley. She couldn't believe the way Blade had betrayed her.

 _I hope I never have to speak to him again!_ she thought as she flew past the entrance to Piston Peak Nation Park. Behind her, the rope that Commander Grayson had lassoed around her horizontal stabiliser, flapped around in the breeze. Suddenly, the rope snagged around a pine tree, causing Sara to come to an abrupt halt.

"Oh, what the…?" she exclaimed, turning around. Seeing the rope, her eyes widened in shock. _That could've killed me!_ She shook her tail around in a vain attempt to dislodge the rope, but it was too tight. She tried again, taking note that not too far below her was the river that had its origins at Upper Whitewater Falls.

While Sara was struggling to free herself, she thought she saw something moving out of the corner of her eye. Pausing for a moment, she hovered to take a closer look. At first, she couldn't see anything. But then, laying on its side amid the rocks on the river's bank, Sara saw a small dark-green car.

It was the missing boy!


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: All recognisable characters belong to Disney. All OCs belong to me.**

Chapter 10

Sara hovered for a moment, weighing up the situation. She was caught; that much was obvious. Both metaphorically and physically. She needed help to get out of her tangle with the tree, but she knew that mustn't be her priority. She _had_ to get help for the boy, even if he was dead. She didn't think for a moment that he could still be alive. Seeing no movement from the boy, Sara exhaled heavily. Regardless of her personal problems, she still had to perform her duty and finish the job.

She switched on her radio. "Patch? Come in, please? This is Lieutenant Sara Chopper. Over."

"I read you. Go ahead, Lieutenant."

"I've found the missing boy. He's on the riverbank about half a mile south-west of the park entrance. Over."

"Copy that. I'll send out a recovery team immediately. Stay in the area, please. Over."

"I will. Lieutenant Chopper out."

 _As if I can go anywhere!_ Sara thought miserably.

Before long, Sara heard some vehicles approaching, both from the road and from the air. Turning, she saw Blade approaching. Blade's eyes widened when he saw Sara's predicament.

"You okay?" he asked as he got closer to her.

"Yeah. The boy's down there," she said, indicating with her eyes. Blade flew over the river to take a closer look. He spoke into his radio for a moment, directing the ground recovery team to the boy's precise location.

As soon as the ground recovery team had confirmed that they had located the boy, Blade turned his attention to Sara.

"You didn't get far."

"Obviously!" Sara spat. She strained at the rope again, still trying to free herself.

"Hey! Don't do that!" Blade ordered. "You'll only injure yourself."

Sara let the rope go slack. "So how am I going to get free?"

"Before we discuss that, are you prepared to come back to base with me, so you can talk things through with Commander Grayson?"

Sara reeled back. Talking to her Commander was the last thing she wanted to do. "Why did you tell him where I was?"

"I was doing my job," Blade growled. Then he softened. "Running from your problems isn't the way to solve them, you know. They'll just keep chasing after you, wearing you down until you're too exhausted to run from them anymore. Then things will only be worse for you. You didn't kill that Captain, any more than I killed my friend, Nick."

Sara's eyes widened in surprise.

"Oh?" Blade said, seeing her reaction. "Don't tell me the others didn't tell you about my co-star?"

Sara shook her front. Blade sighed tiredly.

"I used to be in a top-rating TV show called CHoPs. My co-star was a chap called Nick. He was a great friend. We did everything together, until one day he was taken from me."

"What happened?" Sara asked quietly.

"A freak cross-wind knocked him out of the sky. There was nothing I could do to save him. His death was instant. The show was cancelled after that, and I decided to come here to help save people's lives for real. For many years, I struggled with the 'what ifs'."

"What ifs?"

"Yes. What if the wind had been a bit slower? What if he had landed differently? What if I'd managed to catch him with my hook?" Blade sighed heavily. "But then I finally realised that 'what ifs' don't bring anyone back to life. They just eat away at your own life, making it unbearable for you to keep on living. Sure, you're still alive, but there's a big difference between just existing and living your life to the fullest. And I know for a fact that's why you went AWOL. You couldn't handle dealing with the 'what ifs'."

Sara stared down at the ground below her. Blade was right. She had been running away from all of her problems. She'd joined the Search and Rescue team to help keep her brother's memory alive, but by running away, she was letting it die. And those 'what ifs' plagued her in her dreams, and in her every waking moment. She couldn't escape them, no matter how hard she tried.

"And what makes you think things will be any different if I do go back with you?" she asked.

"Commander Grayson told me that he'd wanted you to see the base counsellor before you went AWOL. Why didn't you?"

Sara continued staring at the ground. "Because… I didn't think he'd be able to help me. He wasn't there. He didn't see the Captain drown. And… I-I was afraid of being demoted for the mistake I made."

"No matter what may have happened that night, your biggest mistake was deciding to go AWOL. And your base counsellor would have been trained to deal with cases like yours. Dealing with death is one of the hardest things we have to face. Especially when our job is to save lives. Sometimes, even though we've done everything we can at the time, those we're trying to save still die. Like this boy," Blade added, indicating down to where the recovery team were respectfully removing the boy from the riverbank.

Sara gulped. Blade was right. She should never have run away. She could see that now. With a heavy sigh, she looked down at the boy again. For a fleeting moment, in her mind's eyes, she saw her brother just moments before he'd taken off on that fateful flight that would be his last. Closing her eyes, she saw the Captain staring straight through her, pleading with his eyes for her to save his life.

 _Chrysler! I need help!_

"Chrysler!" one of the recovery workers exclaimed. "He's still alive!"

Sara's eyes flew open in astonishment. She and Blade stared down at the riverbank, not quite believing what they'd just heard.

One of the workers looked up at them, equally as astonished. "The boy is still alive!" he shouted up to them. "He's unconscious, and we can barely get a pulse, but he's still breathing! It's shallow, but he's breathing! We'll have to airlift him out of here! It's his only chance! We need to get him to a hospital quickly!"

"Lieutenant Chopper is fully equipped for an airlift," Blade replied. "It'll be easier for everyone if you can get him to that clearing over there."

The worker nodded. "We'll meet you over there!"

Blade and Sara exchanged glances. Sara was genuinely surprised. "You're sending me?"

Blade nodded seriously. "You're designed for this kind of work. That clearing should just be large enough for you to land and take off again. The nearest hospital is over a hundred miles away, so you'll have to fly quickly and smoothly."

Sara hesitated. "And what if I decide not to come back?"

"Then I hope you have a good life. But one day, you will be caught and sentenced to a long time in prison. Going AWOL isn't something the army takes lightly. You won't be able to run from them forever. Eventually, they will find you."

Tears welled up in Sara's eyes, but she pushed them aside. She had to do her job before she thought about herself. And right now, the little boy's life was in her rotors. She had to do her part to save his life.

"If I don't return by tomorrow, you'll know what I've decided to do," she whispered to Blade.

Nodding, Blade flew lower and, with his rotors, he sliced neatly through the rope anchoring Sara to the tree. Sara breathed a sigh of relief as her tail came free.

"I hope you do decide to come back," Blade said sincerely. "I'd miss you terribly if you didn't."

Sara just blinked in astonishment. _He didn't really just say that, did he?_

Sighing despondently, Sara took off towards the clearing, where she landed safely. Before long, she was taking off again, with her precious cargo and three members of the recovery team loaded inside of her. She had a lot to think about before she made up her mind.

 **Thank you so much for your reviews! Please keep them coming. I'm so glad so many people are enjoying this story.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: All recognisable characters belong to Disney. All OCs belong to me.**

Chapter 11

"YOU LET HER GO?" Commander Grayson shouted at Blade in disbelief. "What the devil were you thinking?"

"The boy needed to be airlifted to hospital," Blade told the furious army commander. "It was a life or death situation, and Sara…Lieutenant Chopper…was the only one equipped to undertake such a delicate mission."

"You do realise she may never come back? And if she doesn't, she will be found, court-marshalled and imprisoned for the rest of her working life."

"I'm sure Sara will decide what's best for her," Blade said evenly.

"She's not thinking straight! She needs psychological help! And who's going to give her that? You?"

Blade exhaled heavily. Commander Grayson was really starting to get on his nerves. "I only told you where Lieutenant Chopper was. And I said I'd try and keep her here until you arrived. I've done that. It's not my fault you decided to shout at her, and scare her into running away again."

"Oh, so now you're blaming me for this?"

Dusty, Dipper, Maru, Cabbie, Windlifter, and the smokejumpers were watching the exchange bounce back and forth between the two angry leaders. It was like watching a Ping-Pong match. None of them said a word as the helicopter and forklift engaged in their verbal battle.

"If the tyre fits, wear it!" Blade growled.

Commander Grayson was taken aback for a moment, but then he managed to pull himself back together. "Hey, you wouldn't happen to have feelings for her, would you? Because if you do, and you let her go, I can have you arrested for interfering with the military."

"And what about yourself? You can't deny that your interest in her is more than just professional."

"I'm her commanding officer! It's my job to take care of my subordinates."

"Yeah, and I'll bet you do a fine job at that!" Blade spat.

"Implying what?"

"Well, it's obvious that Sara doesn't have any feelings for you! Otherwise, she'd have stayed."

"Why, you…!"

"Fault!" Drip suddenly shouted, interrupting the 'game'.

Blade and Commander Grayson looked around in astonishment, as if they'd suddenly realised that they weren't alone. Blade seemed to turn even redder with embarrassment.

"This doesn't concern any of you," he muttered. "Go about your business."

"What business?" Maru asked dryly. "This is much more entertaining!"

If looks could killed, Maru would've become molten metal in an instant. But the little forklift was used to Blade's temper, so he didn't flinch.

At that moment, Dusty thought he could hear an engine approaching. "Hey, did you guys hear that?"

"What?" Dipper asked.

"Th-that engine. It sounds like someone's coming."

Everyone immediately turned to look at the nearby ridge. Sure enough, the sound of very loud twin engines could be heard in the distance. A moment later, a familiar red, white and black Jayhawk helicopter flew around the ridge, heading straight towards the Air Attack base.

"It's Sara!" Dynamite exclaimed joyously.

"Quick! Clear the runway!" Blade ordered.

Up in the tower, Patch smiled when she heard Sara's voice come in over the radio.

"Lieutenant Chopper to Piston Peak Air Attack, come in please. Over."

"Reading you, Lieutenant. Over."

"Request permission to land. Over."

"Permission granted, Lieutenant. Over."

"Thank you. Lieutenant Chopper out."

Sara could see everyone scrambling out of the way as she came in to land. She drew in a deep breath when she saw Commander Grayson glaring at her.

 _Well, time to face the music, Sara_ , she told herself. _As Blade said, I may as well get it over with._

The entire air attack team, except for Blade, gathered happily around Sara as soon as her wheels had touched the tarmac.

"How's the boy?" Avalanche asked anxiously.

"Will he live?" Maru butted in.

"Why did you come back?" This came from Dusty. Sara caught her breath. So far, only Blade knew her whole story, and that was how she wanted it to be for the time being. She pushed through the small crowd without answering any of their questions, and she went over to where Blade and Commander Grayson had parked.

"Mission accomplished, sir!" she said to Blade in her militaristic tone. "The boy is currently in a critical condition in the intensive care unit. May I have your permission to airlift the boy's parents to the hospital as soon as it is convenient for them?"

For a moment, nobody said a word. Sara waited patiently for Blade to respond. Luckily for her, he was the first to find his voice.

"Permission granted, on one condition. I want you to talk to your commanding officer before you do."

"I was going to talk to him, anyway," Sara said seriously. She turned towards Commander Grayson. "May we talk in private, sir?"

Still completely lost for words, Commander Grayson merely nodded.

"There's a clearing behind my hanger that you may use," Blade suggested. "I'll make sure you're left alone."

"Thank you," Sara replied, smiling gratefully.

A few minutes later, Sara and Commander Grayson found themselves completely alone in the clearing. For a moment, neither of them said a word. They just stared uncomfortably at the ground in front of them.

Sara spoke up first. "Sir. I am prepared to return to Florida with you to face the consequences of going AWOL, just as soon as I've completed my duties here."

Commander Grayson couldn't disguise his surprise. "Lieutenant… I-I think you should know that…well, you won't be court-martialled for going AWOL. You see, when I discovered that you'd left, I covered for you by claiming I'd given you a three month leave pass. I hoped that would be enough time to convince you to come back."

Sara's eyes widened in surprise. That wasn't the response she'd been expecting. Well, to be honest, she wasn't sure what response she'd been expecting, only that it would be a negative one. However, she was rather touched by what her commanding officer had done for her. "I don't mean to be rude, sir, but why would you do that for me?"

Commander Grayson moved closer to her. "Can't you tell?" he asked seductively.

Sara's jaw dropped. "Are you hitting on me, sir?"

"I'd be a fool not to. You're extremely attractive, and you're highly intelligent. I mean, I know I'm your commanding officer, and that you're a lot bigger than me, but I can't help my feelings towards you."

"Well, you'd better!" Sara snapped, completely forgetting about military curtesy. Seeing the shock and disappointment on Commander Grayson's face, Sara softened. "I'm sorry, sir, but I'm not ready for a relationship. And, to be honest, I don't believe we'd be well-suited as a couple."

"But I'm in love with you!" Commander Grayson blurted out. "Please, give me a chance!"

Seeing Commander Grayson advancing towards her with his lips puckered up for a kiss, Sara quickly reversed. "Sir! I really must protest!"

Commander Grayson stopped abruptly in his tracks, and he scowled. "Fine! If that's the way you want it…"

"It is, sir," Sara told him firmly. She cleared her throat. "To go back to our original topic, I am ready to go back to the Search and Rescue base now. But how will my early return to base be explained?"

"I'm sure you'll think of something." Looking up, Commander Grayson noticed that the rope was still caught around Sara's horizontal stabiliser. "But before you fly anywhere again, we need to attend to your tail."

"What? Oh…"

Sara rolled away without waiting to be dismissed. Commander Grayson glared at her crossly.

"So…you won't have me then, miss high-and-mighty," he muttered to himself. "It seems I need to remind you about military protocol…"

"Ow! Maru! That's a very tender area, even at the best of times!"

"Sorry," Maru apologised. He quickly attempted to regain his balance inside the cage of the cherry-picker he was standing on. "Keep still, or I'll chain you down again."

Sara gulped. Even the memory of being restrained was enough to stop her wiggling.

Reaching for Sara's horizontal stabiliser again, Maru finally managed to grab hold of the loose end of the rope. Sara winched when he attempted to pull the tight noose closer to himself. Seeing that it wouldn't budge, Maru frowned. While he had a tool that could cut the rope, he really needed three arms to do the job. And Sara's flinching didn't help him much either.

"Dynamite!" he finally yelled in exasperation.

"Sup, Maru?" Dynamite asked, driving inside the hanger.

"Would you mind taking over from Patch in the tower for a few minutes? And tell her I need her to come and help me with Sara?"

"Sure."

"What do you need Patch for?" Sara asked once Dynamite had gone.

"I need another arm."

"Oh."

A few minutes later, Patch arrived. After securing the loose end of the rope within reach, Maru went down with the cherry-picker to collect her.

Once Maru had manoeuvred the cherry-picker back into position, he passed the rope to Patch.

"I need you to keep this taut, but try not to hurt Sara too much. The rope's rubbing her badly, and she has some bruises there."

"I understand," Patch said.

Maru picked up a pair of long-handled garden loppers. While he knew they weren't the best tool to use, they were the only thing he had that would be able to cut the thick rope easily. Moving quickly, Maru placed the blades around the looped section of the rope, right beside the knot.

"Ow!" Sara yelped, flinching.

"Take it easy, Sara," Patch soothed. "We've almost got it."

Sure enough, a few seconds later, there was a snap as the blades came together after successfully managing to cut through the rope. Patch quickly gathering it up.

"There!" Maru announced triumphantly. "All done."

"Thanks," Sara mumbled.

At that moment, Commander Grayson entered the hanger. "May I come in?"

"Yup!" Maru answered as he lowered the cherry-picker. "We've successfully removed the rope, so she's cleared to fly again."

"That is good news," Commander Grayson sighed. "Lieutenant? After discussing things over with Blade, I've decided that, after you have taken the boy's parents to the hospital, you will head straight to Navel Air Station North Island, where you will be assigned to the aircraft carrier, the _Dwight D. Flysenhower_. They will only be in dock until nine a.m. tomorrow morning, so you may have to refuel at North Island and then fly south to catch up to them. I have told Captain Carler only what he needs to know about your past. Since the _Flysenhower_ will be practicing military manoeuvres in the Gulf of Mexico for the next month, they have agreed to travel within a safe flying distance of our base, so you can fly back there. It'll be far safer than having you trying to fly back over land on diesel fuel again."

Sara cringed. Now that she knew she wasn't going to be court-martialled, she wasn't terribly keen on returning to the Search and Rescue base. She'd started to grow fond of Piston Peak, even though she'd only been there for five days. And, if she was truly honest with herself, part of the reason she didn't want to leave was because of Blade. But she also knew that she had to obey orders, despite what she might want. Looking out of the hanger, she saw Blade talking to Dusty and Dipper. He said something she couldn't hear, but it made Dipper giggle, while Dusty blushed. The scene made Sara smile.

"Lieutenant!" Commander Grayson snapped. "You will listen to me when I'm talking to you!"

Sara automatically jumped to attention. "Yes, sir!"

"Do you understand everything I've just told you?"

"Yes, sir. After I've delivered the boy's parents to the hospital, I'm to join the _Dwight D. Flysenhower_ until I arrive near the base."

"Correct. I'm going to leave now. Blade has promised to see you on your way. I hope you have a safe journey, and I'll see you back at base."


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: All recognisable characters belong to Disney. All OCs belong to me.**

Chapter 12

The next morning, Sara arrived safely at Navel Air Station North Island, only to find out that the _Flysenhower_ had left half an hour earlier.

"I've been flying all night!" Sara complained to the base commander as she was quickly refuelled. "Couldn't they have waited for me?"

"Sorry, but they're on a very tight schedule," the commander apologised. "They're only going at half speed for now, so you should be able to catch up with them within the hour if you hurry."

Grumbling crossly, Sara took off again as soon as she'd been given permission to do so. She blinked a few tears away from her eyes. The events of the past fifteen-odd hours had left her completely exhausted, both physically and emotionally. It had been incredibly difficult for her to say goodbye to all of her new friends at Piston Peak – especially Blade. The more she thought about him, the more she realised just how much she'd come to like him. Now, the thought of even returning to her base made her feel sick. Especially since she now knew what Commander Grayson's intentions were towards her.

 _Maybe I could put in for a transfer_ , Sara thought miserably. _Somewhere closer to Piston Peak, so I can visit everyone whenever I want to._

Then, there'd been her mission to deliver the injured boy's parents to the hospital. While she'd been somewhat relieved to learn that the boy's condition had been downgraded from critical to serious, he was still in a very bad way. Infection had set in, and he hadn't responded to anything since he'd been admitted. It was also very likely that if the boy survived, he'd require a prosthetic axle for the rest of his life. While it was still unclear just how the boy had ended up falling into the river, everyone was hopeful that he'd regain consciousness soon, so he could give everyone the answers.

With a heavy sigh, Sara tried to concentrate on her flight path. Below her, the sea glistened like a sheet of glass. Above her, there was nothing but a cloudless blue sky. On the horizon, the sky and sea touched so perfectly it was almost impossible to see just where they met. It was such a beautiful day, and yet it could do nothing to brighten Sara's mood.

"HH-60J 6040. This is November India Kilo Echo. Do you copy? Over?"

Sara exhaled deeply upon hearing the voice come in over her radio. "HH-60J 6040 copies, November India Kilo Echo. Over."

"We've located you on our radar. Do you have us in sight yet? Over."

Glancing into the blue horizon, Sara could just make out the dark form of the _Flysenhower_ off to her left, in the distance. "Affirmative. Over."

"You have permission to enter restricted airspace. Our lookout has just confirmed that they can see you. Stay in a holding pattern until we give you permission to land. Over."

"I'm starting to run low on fuel. Request permission for a priority landing. Over."

There was static for a moment, but then the same voice replied, "Permission granted, HH-60J 6040. Have you ever landed on a moving aircraft carrier before? Over."

"Affirmative. I've done it twice during my basic training, but I'll admit I wasn't very good at it. Over."

"Copy that. We'll have medics on stand-by, just in case. Out."

Sara continued her steady approach to the _Flysenhower_. Once she was close enough, she fell into the holding pattern behind a Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet. On the flight deck, she could see various crew members and pitties hurrying around, ensuring that there was plenty of room for her to land, just in case it ended up being a crash landing.

"HH-60J 6040, you have permission to land, over."

"Copy that. Over."

"Follow the LSO's directions from now on. Out."

Breaking out of the holding pattern, Sara descended smoothly towards the flight deck. The LSO (Landing Signal Officer) held up yellow-coloured batons in his arms, signalling that it was safe for her to attempt a landing. Remembering everything she'd ever been taught about landing on a moving runway, Sara did the best she could. Her landing was a little rough, but the LSO seemed to be happy with it, because he signalled for her to shut down her engines.

Once Sara was safely off the runway, Captain Carler, a forklift painted in his shipboard uniform colours, approached her.

"Lieutenant Chopper?"

"Yes, sir."

"I'm Captain Carler. Welcome aboard the _Dwight D. Flysenhower_. I'm sorry we couldn't wait for you. You'll understand that we are under a tight schedule. Let me show you to your quarters."

"Thank you, sir," Sara said appreciatively.

Captain Carler escorted Sara over to one of the elevators. A moment later, they were down in the depths of the _Flysenhower_. Sara followed Captain Carler through a huge hanger, and into a much smaller back room. She was surprised by just how bare this room was.

"Aren't you going to let me stay with the other aircraft?" she asked him nervously.

"I'm afraid not," Captain Carler replied as several pitties also entered the room. Captain Carler turned to face Sara. "Lieutenant Sara Chopper. As of now…" He glanced at his watch. "…1105 hundred hours, I am relieving you of all military duties, and I am placing you under arrest on the charge of being absent without leave. Do you have anything you wish to say? Bear in mind that anything you do say will be used against you in evidence at your court-martial."

Sara was too shocked to say anything. In fact, she was so shocked, she didn't even feel the heavy chains the pitties were securing around her axles. The chains were bolted securely to the floor, ensuring she couldn't escape.

Sara gulped in a vain attempt to moisten her throat, which had suddenly gone dry. "Sir! Commander Grayson said I wouldn't be court-martialled!"

"Commander Grayson is the one who ordered me to place you under arrest," Captain Carler replied evenly.

Sara was too stunned to even think. Commander Grayson had betrayed her! And all because she'd refused his advances.

"Is she secured?" Captain Carler asked the pitties.

"Yes, sir. I'd defy a 747 to get out of these chains," one of the pitties replied.

"Good. Make sure she receives everything she needs."

"We will, sir," another pitty replied, saluting the Captain.

"Just remember, she's only being charged with going AWOL. She hasn't been convicted yet. If I find that any of the men have so much as laid a tyre on her, they'll also be arrested. Is that clear?"

"Perfectly, sir!"

With a nod, Captain Carler left, followed by the pitties. The heavy door was closed and locked, leaving Sara all alone, in the dark, with just the light from a porthole in the wall behind her for her to see by. She'd never felt more alone than she did now.

Up on the bridge of the Flysenhower, Captain Carler settled down with a cup of coffee, alongside his second-in-command, Commander Jenkins.

"Lieutenant Chopper has been secured in the hold," he reported. "We'll keep her there until I can figure out what to do with her."

"I thought you'd agreed to hand her over to Vice-Admiral Mercedes once we'd docked in Florida for supplies in a few weeks?" Commander Jenkins said with an air of surprise.

"I was… But you see, I went through her record last night. You know how I like to know the service record of everyone who comes aboard my ship. Anyway, I found some anomalies."

"Oh, yeah?" Commander Jenkins leaned forwards. "Such as?"

Captain Carler picked up Sara's file from the pile of paperwork on the desk in front of him. He passed it over to Commander Jenkins. "As you can see, Lieutenant Chopper has been in the army for eight years – two years of basic training, and six years with the Coast Guard serving as a Search and Rescue helicopter. She's completed over five hundred missions, with most of them being civilian ocean rescues. I must say, I'm very impressed with her record. But, take a look at the last entry."

"'October fifteen'," Commander Jenkins read aloud. "'Successful recovery of six crew members from sinking trawler during Hurricane Jasper. Trawler captain drowned. Three month leave pass issued.' Well, what's so strange about that?"

"According to the official records, Lieutenant Chopper is supposed to still be on leave. She has just over two months left."

"So?"

"So, why did her CO practically order me to have her arrested for going AWOL as soon as she landed on my ship's deck?"

"Ahh… I see what you're driving at. Has she denied being AWOL?"

"No, which is surprising. In fact, her very words to me were. 'Commander Grayson said I wouldn't be court-martialled'. Which seems very odd for her to say. It's as though she was expecting to be arrested, but Grayson told her she wouldn't be."

"Because she's supposed to be on leave?"

"Exactly. Obviously, someone's not telling the truth around here. And there's another thing!"

"What? There's more?"

"Yes. If Lieutenant Chopper had gone AWOL, why would she choose to come back of her own free will? She even sounded like she was keen to return. I heard her over the radio myself. And before you ask, yes, I did record the conversation. I'm not happy with this. This whole situation is just screaming alarm bells for me."

"Who do you think isn't telling the truth?"

"I don't know yet," Captain Carler frowned. "But I intend to find out!"

Back down in the hold, Sara was struggling to hold back her tears, when she heard a loud 'click' as someone unlocked the door of her cell. A few seconds later, a petty officer entered. Without saying a word, he set a large can of oil down in front of her, and then he left, closing and bolting the door securely behind him.

In the bleakness of the cell, Sara finally let her tears fall. How could everything have gone so wrong?


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: All recognisable characters belong to Disney. All OCs belong to me.**

Chapter 13

"Hmm…" Commander Jenkins mused as he studied the latest weather reports that had just come in. "Captain?"

"Yes, Commander?" Captain Carler replied. He'd just entered the bridge after having dinner down in the mess.

"I don't like the look of these weather reports. If we continue on our current heading, we'll confront the low that's sitting west of Cape Horn. Perhaps we should pull into a bay to wait it out, sir?"

"Just how bad is this low?"

"Wind gusts of over fifty miles an hour, and large hail."

"Can we divert around it?" Captain Carler wondered.

His second-in-command, a forklift just like himself, shook his head. "That would take just as much time as waiting for it to pass. If we wait for it to pass, we can then follow it around Cape Horn before we travel north again."

While Captain Carler was still sizing up the situation, the radio on the bridge crackled into life, and a distressed, juvenile female voice spoke. "Mayday! Mayday! This is the _Lady Celeste_. I've run into difficulty in this storm, and am in danger of capsizing. Current co-ordinates are 69 degrees west, 36 minutes, and 65 degrees south, 56 minutes. Please assist! Urgent! Mayday! Mayday…" Everyone listened as the same message was repeated. The navigation officer quickly wrote down the co-ordinates, while her assistant plotted them on a map.

"Can we assist?" Captain Carler asked.

The assistant nodded. "She's within about three hour's flying distance of us, sir. I believe we can assist, although it will mean sending someone into the storm."

"We can cope with that. What kind of vessel is the _Lady Celeste_?"

"I was just looking her up, sir," Commander Jenkins replied. "According to our database, she's an S&S 34 yacht. She's attempting to break the world record at being the youngest yacht to circumnavigate the globe. Let's hope we can get to her in time."

Captain Carler nodded grimly. "Nav? Acknowledge the mayday and inform _Lady Celeste_ that we're preparing to launch a rescue helicopter to her now."

The Navigation officer picked up the radio. " _Lady Celeste_? This is the _USS Dwight D. Flysenhower_. We've received your mayday and will respond by dispatching a rescue helicopter to you. We have your co-ordinates. Can you tell us more about your current situation please? Over."

Captain Carler dialled a number into the phone on the wall beside him. After two rings, someone answered. "Sir?"

"We've just received an urgent mayday, midshipman. Prepare Sub-Lieutenant Thorne for the rescue mission, please."

"I'm afraid that's not possible, sir."

"Why not?"

"All of our helicopters seemed to have picked up some sort of twenty-four hour bug that's been going around. A couple of our fighters are also showing symptoms. We're not sure what's caused it, but the doctors are doing everything they can right now."

"I see… Thank you."

Captain Carler hung up the phone. A knot had formed in his tank. Who would he send now? He couldn't send one of the fighter jets. They weren't capable of a rescue mission, nor were they trained for one. That only left…

"Lieutenant Chopper!" he exclaimed.

"But, sir! She's grounded," Commander Jenkins reminded him.

"I know, but this is an emergency. She's the only aircraft we have who's capable of carrying out this mission." He dialled the number again. "Midshipman? Prepare Lieutenant Chopper for the rescue mission."

"Sir! Lieutenant Chopper hasn't eaten a thing since she first came on board!"

Captain Carler frowned. That wasn't good. Unlike land vehicles, aircraft couldn't survive for very long periods without nourishment.

"Has she been drinking?"

"Yes, so we've been lacing her drinks with extra vitamins and minerals to keep her going. It's all we can do for her right now, since the doctors are so busy caring for the others."

"I understand. My order stands. Prepare her for the rescue mission."

"Yes, sir!"

"Are you sure you can trust Lieutenant Chopper?" Commander Jenkins asked after Captain Carler had hung up.

"No, but what choice do I have?" And with that, Captain Carler left the bridge, slamming the door behind him.

…

Inside her cell in the hull of the _Dwight D. Flysenhower_ , Sara was trying to keep herself amused by quietly singing to herself the song that had been sung at her brother's memorial service – 'Still I Fly'.

 _"_ _Never letting go, gotta learn to grow, watch me as I touch the sky. Still I fly. Now I know it's what I've gotta do, find a dream that's new, give it all I've got this time. Still I fly…"_

Sara let the last word linger as tears began to tumble from her eyes. She was surprised she still had any left. But singing that song brought back the raw memory that there'd been nothing left of her brother for her family to bury. Not even having a grave for them to go to, made his death seem even more pointless.

"Oh, manufacturer! Why? Why did you take John? He did nothing wrong!" Sara whispered into the stillness.

Hearing the rattle of keys in the distance, Sara quickly stood up straight on her axles, and she tried to blink away the rest of her tears. A moment later, her cell door was unlocked. Instead of the petty officer who'd been looking after her, a midshipman opened the cell door. Two petty officers she didn't know were with him.

"Unchain her," the midshipman ordered the petty officers. They immediately set about obeying the order.

"What's going on?" Sara asked.

"Captain Carler's orders. He's ordered me to prepare you for a rescue mission. Come along."

Sara froze. Something just didn't seem right to her. "No."

The midshipman whirred around in surprise. "What do you mean, 'no'?"

"I'm not leaving this cell unless I'm ordered to by Captain Carler himself," Sara replied firmly. "I know what will happen otherwise. I'll fly away from here, and then you'll shoot me down as an escaped prisoner."

The midshipman's jaw dropped in astonishment. Before he could find his voice, Captain Carler drove over to the cell.

"What's taking so long, midshipman?" he demanded. "It shouldn't take you this long to prepare one helicopter!"

"Sir! S-she…"

"She's refusing to leave unless she's ordered to by you, sir," one of the petty officers replied.

Captain Carler's eyelids rose in amazement. Pushing through the group of officers, he parked in front of Sara.

"Lieutenant Chopper. We have a fierce storm approaching, and we've received a mayday from the _Lady Celeste_. She is in urgent need of assistance, and with my own fleet of helicopters ill, I need you to undertake this rescue mission. I'm ordering you to go onto the flight deck and prepare for the mission."

"How do I know you won't shoot me down as an escaping prisoner?" Sara asked.

"And how do I know you won't try to escape?" Captain Carler retorted, catching Sara by surprise. The Captain changed his tone. "LIEUTENANT CHOPPER! We're wasting valuable time! MOVE ONTO THE FLIGHT DECK NOW!"

"Yes, sir!" Sara replied, automatically snapping to attention. She quickly followed the midshipman through the hanger, and over to the nearest lift.

…

It was already pouring with rain out on the flight deck. Sara gulped when she saw the aircraft that were waiting to go down into their nice, warm hangers below eyeing her suspiciously. Despite her size, those war planes made her feel incredibly small. The LSO guided Sara over to a fuel pump. A forklift doctor was waiting there, holding a large syringe.

"Since you haven't eaten anything recently, I'm just going to give you some medicine," the doctor explained, shouting above the roar of the wind. "It'll help settle your tank, and stop your system rejecting the fuel."

Sara merely nodded. While the doctor was administering the medicine into her fuel tank, the Navigation Officer's assistant drove over.

"I'm just going to put the co-ordinates into your satnav," he explained. Sara sighed as he climbed inside her cargo bay and, after he'd removed a panel, he began typing the co-ordinates directly into Sara's satnav.

Finally, Sara was refuelled, and a special visor was fastened over her eyes to help protect them from the wind and rain. While that was taking place, two petty officers climbed inside her cargo bay, double checking their equipment once they were inside.

"Is she ready yet?" Captain Carler asked impatiently.

"She's ready!" someone shouted in reply.

Sara turned on all of her lights as the LSO guided her over to the helicopter pad. She looked up at the sky. It was already very dark, even though nightfall was still over two hours away. Lightning streaked across the sky, followed almost immediately by a boom of thunder. Sara shivered. The rain was freezing cold, and she was sure the biting wind was being blown straight from Antarctica.

The LSO signalled to Sara to switch on her engines. She tried to, but they wouldn't, making Sara cough as the fumes blew straight back into her air intake. On her second attempt, she managed to get one engine started. A moment later, the other engine also started. Sara waited for her engines and rotors to warm up before she took off into the stormy sky.

…

" _Lady Celeste_? _Lady Celeste_? Can you hear me? Over." Static. Sara exhaled deeply with frustration. Flying on a little further, she tried again. " _Lady Celeste_! _Lady Celeste_! Please acknowledge! Over."

"This is the _Lady Celeste_ ," a weak voice replied. "I read you. Over."

Sara breathed a small sigh of relief. " _Lady Celeste_ , this is Lieutenant Chopper from _the Dwight D. Flysenhower_. I'm at your last known co-ordinates. What is your current position, please? Over."

After _Lady Celeste_ had given Sara her new co-ordinates, Sara changed her course, flying even further south. She was beginning to get worried. She was almost at the safe limit of her fuel range. If she didn't start heading back soon, she'd run out of fuel before she could get back to the safety of the aircraft carrier.

"There she is!" one of the petty officers shouted.

"Where?" Sara asked, hovering for a moment. "I can't see a thing in this downpour, even with this visor!"

"To your left!"

Sara turned that way. Remembering how she'd searched for the missing boy during the night, Sara turned on her thermal imaging camera. It was hard to believe that it had been just over two weeks ago since that night when she'd taken off into the hurricane, vowing never to return. She couldn't believe how much had happened during that time!

Almost instantly, Sara located the Lady Celeste. Her sail was down, but her mast had been broken in half. At least, she was still upright! Sara wondered how she could have missed seeing her, considering she was painted bright pink.

" _Lady Celeste_. This is Lieutenant Chopper. I can see you. I'll be sending someone down to secure a harness to you. Over."

 _Lady Celeste_ didn't reply, making Sara wonder if her injuries were more extended than just her mast. Hovering to the port side of the stricken vessel, Sara lowered one of the petty officers and the harness down onto _Lady Celeste's_ deck. While the petty officer secured the harness around _Lady Celeste's_ hull, Sara kept a close eye on her fuel gauge. She turned on her radio.

"November India Kilo Echo, this is HH-60J 6040. Over."

"HH-60J 6040, this is November India Kilo Echo. Receiving. Over."

"We've successfully located _Lady Celeste_. She's injured, but still afloat. Will be returning shortly, but I've gone just over my fuel safety limit. Not sure if I'll be able to make it back. What are your current co-ordinates? Over."

Sara frowned after she been given the Flysenhower's co-ordinates. She'd really be pushing the limit of her fuel supply.

"Acknowledged. Over," was all Sara said in reply. Then she heard Captain Carler's voice on the radio.

"Will you be able to make it back safely, Lieutenant?"

Sara thought hard for a moment before replying. "Mathematically, no, I don't have enough fuel. But I'll do everything I can to get back before I run out. Over."

…

On board the _Flysenhower_ , Captain Carler's tank sank when he heard Sara's last words. He'd only just realised that her fuel limit was about twenty gallons less than the rest of the helicopters on board the _Flysenhower_. While it didn't sound like much, he had enough experience to know that twenty gallons could be the difference between Sara making a safe return, or having her crash into the sea. He pulled the radio mic closer to his mouth.

"Do the best you can. We'll start heading in your direction. Out." After he'd set the mic back in its position, he turned to Commander Jenkins. "Set our course for the _Lady Celeste's_ last known co-ordinates. Stay in radio contact with Lieutenant Chopper, and send her a co-ordinate update every ten minutes."

"Yes, sir!"

…

Sara blinked wildly. Even with the help of the visor, the rain was coming down so heavily it was getting around the visor and starting to blind her. The petty officer was just being pulled back inside her cargo bay with the aid of his colleague.

"Okay, Lieutenant!" he shouted. "Let's get out of here!"

Straining hard, Sara began to fly back towards the _Flysenhower_ , towing the _Lady Celeste_ along through the heavy swells behind her.

Just when Sara was beginning to think that things couldn't get any worse, it began to hail. At first, the pieces of ice were tiny, but they quickly became golf ball sized, with some pieces being even bigger than that. Sara's visor shattered when a particularly large piece of hail struck it, jolting her violently, and preventing her from seeing anything. Still, she struggled on, trusting in her satnav to guide her back to the _Flysenhower_.

"HH-60J 6040, this is November India Kilo Echo. Over."

"Receiving you. Over," Sara replied. She didn't have time for normal military courtesies.

After she'd received the _Flysenhower's_ current co-ordinates, Sara said, "I need to report that I am now flying blind owing to large hail. I'm relying solely on the co-ordinates you give me, so please continue with the updates. And what's my ETA? Over."

"Will do. Your current ETA is twenty minutes. Do you think you'll be able to make it? Over."

"I don't know. Out."

At that moment, Sara felt something going wrong with one of her engines. It felt very hot, like it was on fire. _Flameout!_ she thought with alarm. While Sara had never experienced a flameout before, she remembered what she'd been taught to do. Reluctantly, and hoping for the best, she shut down the faulty engine.

"November India Kilo Echo, this is HH-60J 6040," she said over the radio again. "Mayday! Mayday! I've had a flameout in one engine! I repeat, I've suffered a flameout in one engine. Over."

"HH-60J 6040, this is November India Kilo Echo. We now have you on our radar. Stay calm. We're coming for you."

It seemed like an eternity before Sara finally saw the _Flysenhower_ coming through the storm towards her. She attempted to restart her failed engine, but it refused to turn over. Using the last of her strength, Sara flew straight up, lifting the _Lady Celeste_ out of the water. Trying to be as gentle as she could, Sara placed _Lady Celeste_ down in the foam crate that had been set up on the flight deck especially for her. At that moment, Sara's other engine began to cut out too, having zapped her fuel supply. Knowing she still had others to think about, she began to descend closer to the flight deck.

"Get out of me, now!" she ordered the petty officers.

"Just land!" one of them shouted, but it was too late.

With a heavy groan, Sara passed out. Her other engine immediately cut out, and Sara fell rapidly towards the flight deck. The petty officers leapt out of her while everyone scattered out of the way. With a shriek of metal scraping against tarmac, and a shower of sparks, Sara came to land heavily on her left hand side. Two of her rotor blades were snapped off in the collision.

For a moment, nobody dared to move. Then, despite the driving rain and hail, the flight deck became a hive of activity. Amidst the chaos around them, Captain Carler and Commander Jenkins drove slowly towards Sara. Both officers frowned sadly.

"See to it that she receives the best medical attention we can give her," Captain Carler ordered quietly.

Commander Jenkins nodded. "Yes, sir."

They continued staring at Sara, who remained unconscious, despite the chaos around her.

A/N – _Lady Celeste_ is based on the yacht _Ella's Pink Lady_ – the vessel Jessica Watson used in her attempt to become the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe solo.

'Still I Fly' is the theme song for _Planes: Fire and Rescue_.

 **Sorry about the delay updating. I've been busy working on my other stories. To be honest, I'm really enjoying writing this story, but I've realised that not everyone enjoys the Planes franchise as much as the Cars franchise. Please review . I'm interested in knowing if that's what everyone else thinks too.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer: All recognisable characters belong to Disney. All OCs belong to me.**

Chapter 14

Blade exhaled deeply as he entered the Fusel Lodge. The place hadn't really changed much in its appearance since Cad Spinner was demoted, but he was glad that the management had. It made him feel a bit more relaxed as he made his way over to Superintendent Jammer's office. He was also glad that Jammer had asked to see him today, because he wanted to ask him something very important. Pausing for a moment outside the office door, Blade knocked on it quietly with his small left-hand side stabiliser.

"Come in!" Jammer called.

Blade entered the office. As usual, it was neat and tidy. Blade smiled slightly as he remembered the one and only time he'd seen the office in Cad's day. It had been completely disorganised with piles of uncompleted paperwork and junk everywhere. Seeing that Jammer was on the phone, Blade closed the door quietly behind him. Then he waited patiently.

"Yes, I'll ensure that the deer are all rounded up for their annual medical exam and vaccinations," Jammer was saying. "No, don't worry about sending anyone. My staff can handle them. They've been doing it every year ever since I've been here."

Blade rolled his eyes. Now he knew why Jammer had wanted to see him today. Every year, just before winter, all of the park's deer population were corralled together to be examined by veterinarians. If any were unlikely to make it through the winter, they'd be kindly euthanized. And every year, it was the Air Attack team's job to doing the herding. While it sounded easy, it was often very dangerous, because sometimes the deer would drive off in the wrong direction and injure themselves, or worse. Blade didn't like seeing any vehicle get hurt, but he knew it was an important job. The deer were vital to the park's environmental stability, so the population had to be kept healthy. Especially now after so many deer had been lost during that terrible wildfire.

Jammer eventually hung up the phone. "I suspect you now know why I wanted to see you today."

"Yes," Blade replied. "My team can start as soon as everything's ready."

"Excellent! The repairs to the main corral should be finished by the end of the week, so we can hopefully start on Monday. It's a shame that big Jayhawk isn't with us anymore. She could've made the job a lot easier."

"Actually, that's what I've been wanting to see you about."

"Oh?"

"Yes. You see, I don't trust her CO, and I'm worried about her. I just want to know if she's okay."

Jammer frowned thoughtfully. "The military don't appreciate having members of the public inquiring into their affairs, and I doubt the Coast Guard will be any different. Luckily, since I work for the government, I might be able to pull a few strings and find out for you. What was her name again?"

"Sara Chopper. Lieutenant Sara Chopper. I understand that she's based at Clearwater in Florida."

Jammer nodded as he wrote that information down. "I'll see what I can do. I wonder if she'd be interested in transferring here. After seeing her in action, I figure we could really use a fully-trained Search and Rescue helicopter around here."

 _You read my mind,_ Blade thought, smiling slightly. "Why don't you suggest it to the Vice Admiral?"

"I think I will," Jammer mused. "I'll look into it, and I'll let you know once I hear from them. You may go now."

Smiling, Blade left the office. He knew he couldn't be too optimistic yet, but the thought of seeing Sara again excited him. He'd never admit that to anyone though!

…

On board the _Dwight D. Flysenhower_ , Captain Carler exited a lift. It had been twenty-four hours since Lieutenant Chopper had crash landed onto the deck of his ship after rescuing _Lady Celeste_. While the young yacht appeared to be recovering well, Lieutenant Chopper was still unconscious.

Upon entering the ship's small hospital, Captain Carler drove straight over to the doctor, who was also a forklift.

"I've waited long enough, Doctor Miles. Now, I want a truthful answer from you. How is Lieutenant Chopper?"

Doctor Miles sighed in exasperation. "In short, bad. She'll be lucky if she ever recovers enough to fly again."

"What do you mean?"

"When she crashed, most of the impact was taken on her rotor blades, two of which snapped off. The subsequent impact caused a bad crack to form in her main rotor shaft. That, as I'm sure you're aware, sits directly above and behind a helicopter's brain, which is why she's still out of it."

"Are you saying that she has brain damage?"

"Potentially. She'll need to undergo a CT scan as soon as we get back to shore. I'm very limited with what I have to work with here. I've done my best, but it's mostly up to her now. She was fortunate we didn't have to put her on life support. She's breathing fine on her own with the respirator, so if she does have brain damage, I'm hoping it won't be severe."

"Can you repair her rotor shaft?"

Doctor Miles shook his head. "Not here. It'd be mush too risky. Helicopters are such sensitive creatures. They don't cope well with medical procedures. Even putting her into an induced coma could mean that she'd never wake up. Unlike with other vehicles, if you don't get the amount of medication exactly right for a helicopter, it could kill them. I'm sure you've seen many cases on the news where a nurse accidentally overdosed a helicopter, resulting in its unfortunate death."

Captain Carler nodded solemnly. "Is there anything we can do?"

"Not unless she wakes up before we dock."

"May I see her, please?"

Rather reluctantly, Dr Miles agreed. He took Captain Carler to a curtained off area inside the hospital. Drawing the curtain aside, he showed the unconscious helicopter to his superior officer. Captain Carler exhaled sadly.

"Keep me informed… Let me know when she wakes up. In the meantime, send her medical report to her superiors, but please let me see it first. I'm going to recommend that, if she cannot be repaired, she receives an honourable medical discharge from the Coast Guard."

…

Inside his office in Washington D.C., Vice Admiral Christopher Sharp, a Hummer, carefully studied the three documents in front of him. Normally, he wouldn't really bother with anything to do with the Coast Guard's Search and Rescue teams; often referring such matters to a Rear Admiral, but this case had caught his attention.

The first document was from Commander Greyson, who was second-in-command of the Search and Rescue base at Clearwater. It was an application for a disciplinary inquiry for a Jayhawk helicopter who had gone AWOL during Hurricane Jasper. The second document was a status report from a Doctor Miles on board the _USS Dwight D. Flysenhower_ , stating that that same Jayhawk was suffering from serious injuries after crashing onto the flight deck during a routine rescue mission. Finally, the third document was from a Superintendent Jammer, from Piston Peak National Park, requesting information on the whereabouts of the same Jayhawk, and if she could be re-assigned to the Piston Peak Air Attack.

Frowning with confusion, Vice Admiral Sharp dialled a number. After a moment, someone answered.

"Hello, sir. I'm sorry to bother you when you're so busy, but I've had an interesting case come my way, and I wanted your advice on what to do. It seems that one of our Search and Rescue Jayhawk helicopters, a Lieutenant Sara Chopper, went AWOL during Hurricane Jasper-"

"Oh, that's easy," the voice on the other end said. "Have her court-martialled."

"There's more, sir. Although her CO reported her for going AWOL two weeks after it happened, I've checked her official file, and it states that she was granted a three month leave by the base Captain on the same day she apparently went AWOL. Basically, someone has falsified the records somewhere. I've also just received notification that Lieutenant Chopper has been almost certainly injured to a point where she will no longer be useful as a Search and Rescue helicopter. Captain Carler, of the _Dwight D. Flysenhower_ , has recommended that she be granted the honour of a Medical Discharge. And finally-"

"What, there's more?"

"I'm afraid so. Superintendent Jammer at Piston Peak National Park has specifically requested that Lieutenant Chopper be officially transferred to the park to assist in Search and Rescue missions there. What do you think should be done?"

"Where is Lieutenant Chopper now?"

"Still on board the _Flysenhower_. According to the medical report, she's to be transferred to a military hospital as soon as the _Flysenhower_ docks, for further tests and potential surgery. We'll know more about her condition after that."

"In that case, I suggest you make sure you're at that hospital when she arrives. Talk to her; gain her trust, and use your ingenuity to find out who's lying. Once you know who's at fault, let me know, and I'll deal with them personally."

"Yes, Admiral Myers. Thank you for your advice. I'll keep you informed."

 **Thank you so much for your thoughtful feedback! Sorry I took a bit longer than I'd planned to update. I've been busy organising everything for my upcoming uni graduation. I'm so glad so many people are enjoying this story, so I'll definitely keep going with it.**

 **Planes: Fire and Rescue is my favourite movie in the Planes franchise, but in the who Cars world franchise, Lightning McQueen is my favourite character. I know some people really hate the Planes films and vice-versa, but we all have our reasons for why we do/don't like the films, and we're all entitled to our opinions.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Disclaimer: All recognisable characters belong to Disney. All OCs belong to me.**

Chapter 15

 _Beep! Beep! Beep!_

Groaning sleepily, Sara slowly began to drift back towards consciousness. Blinking open her eyes, all she saw was white.

"Bloody hell!" she muttered groggily. "I'm going to kill Grayson the next time I see him."

"Why?" a stranger's masculine voice asked.

Glancing around, Sara couldn't see anyone else in the room with her. But then again, her vision was so badly blurred, she couldn't even make out a single object. Thinking that it was just her mind playing tricks on her, Sara ignored the voice. She continued trying to figure out where she was, until the voice spoke again.

"Why would you like to kill Grayson?"

"Because he betrayed me, that's why," Sara heard herself saying. "Oh! Where am I? And who are you?"

"How did he betray you?" the voice asked, ignoring her questions.

"He said he wouldn't have me court-martialled for going AWOL, but then I was arrested for that reason very under his orders," Sara replied irritably. She closed her eyes to try and stop the room from spinning.

"So, you don't deny going AWOL?"

"No. I said I'd go back and accept whatever punishment I'd get, but then he told me that he'd arranged for me to have a three month leave pass instead, so everything was okay." Sara paused for a moment to try and gather her thoughts. "Why am I even telling you this?"

"Because you felt you needed to tell someone?" the voice asked kindly.

Sara shrugged. "Perhaps."

"Why would he go back on his word?"

"Because…" Sara shook herself. Why was she even telling this person about her private life? This had to be a dream. Or maybe it was just her subconscious playing tricks on her.

"It's okay. You can tell me. I want to help you."

Sara exhaled deeply. "I think it's because when he tried to hit on me, I flat out refused him. I don't think he expected to be rejected."

"I see. Thank you, Lieutenant. You just rest for now. I'll sort everything out."

Hearing her companion start to leave the room, Sara said, "You didn't answer my questions."

"You're in the Coast Guard hospital at Clearwater Air Base. And, for now, I think it's best if you don't know who I am. I'll send a nurse in to attend to you, if you'd like."

"Thank you," Sara whispered weakly.

A moment later, Sara heard someone else enter the room. She attempted to open her eyes again, but the nurse quickly stopped her.

"Keep your eyes closed for now," she instructed. "You had a nasty accident, and you're still recovering from the surgery you had, almost two weeks ago now. We've kept you sedated until yesterday, but you've been unconscious until now. There… That's it. Try to relax. Are you comfortable? I can close the curtains if it's too bright for you."

"Why did I have surgery?" Sara asked, trying not to sound as frightened as she felt.

"Your main rotor shaft was badly cracked in your accident. The doctors decided to replace it entirely, but that meant risking permanent brain damage. However, after they took countless x-ray and CT scans, they found that your brain hadn't suffered any trauma, so they were able to operate successfully. You were very lucky, in that your side absorbed most of the impact. Had you landed directly on your rotors… Well, let's just say we're all relieved to see you doing so well at last. Now, you're under strict orders to sleep as much as possible, and you're not to have any excitement. No TV, and no noise. I'll just check your vitals, and then I'll go and let your doctor know that you've awakened. He'll want to see how you're doing."

Nodding, Sara settled down to sleep again. It came upon her quickly, much to the nurse's satisfaction.

…

Panting heavily from exertion, Superintendent Jammer pushed himself up the final climb towards the Air Attack base. With the first snows of winter fast approaching, the air near the Air Attack seemed to be much thinner than usual. With a gasping effort, he drove over towards the hangers.

"INCOMING!" Avalanche suddenly shouted as he leapt from a dirt ramp over the aging car.

"Arrhhh!" Jammer yelped, jumping to one side.

"Avalanche!" Dynamite scolded, seeming to appear out of nowhere. "How many times do I have to tell you not to do that? You almost gave poor Jammer an engine attack."

"Only 'almost'?" Jammer chided. He paused for a moment to try and catch his breath. "Where's Blade?"

"Oh, he'll be in his hanger, pining after that gorgeous Jayhawk," Dynamite replied with a knowing grin.

 _So, that's why he was so keen to know how she was!_ Jammer thought. _I hope he won't be too upset by what I have to tell him._ "I'll go and see him." He glanced over at the steep slope that lead up to Blade's hanger. "On second thoughts, could you please ask him to meet me inside Maru's hanger? I have something important to tell him."

"Uh, sure," Dynamite said, and she drove away.

A few minutes later, Blade joined Jammer inside Maru's hanger, but not before they'd asked their little friend to leave first. Maru reluctantly did so, complaining that he still had heaps of work to do.

"Have you discovered something?" Blade asked anxiously. It had been just over two weeks since he'd asked Jammer to find out if Sara was okay. During that time, Blade had kept himself busy with the annual deer herding. Now that it was finished, he had little to do except think about Sara, and worry over her safety.

"I have," Jammer replied. A fierce gust of wind whistled around the closed hanger, forcing Jammer to speak up. "It seems that she had an accident on board an aircraft carrier – the _Dwight D. Flysenhower_."

"That's the one Dusty's friends with," Blade mused. He now regretted the fact that Dusty had had to leave them a week earlier for a race. He could've really used the little plane's help right now.

"Yeah. Well, anyway, she was so badly injured that she was transferred to the mainland as soon as possible. All I know is that she's in a serious, but stable condition. I have no idea what her injuries were, I'm sorry."

"That's okay," Blade sighed sadly. "Thank you for finding out that much. Please, keep me informed of any further developments."

"I will. Uh, Blade?"

"Yeah?"

"Is it true that you're in a relationship with Sara?"

Blade was rather taken aback. "What? No! Of course I'm not in a relationship with her! I'm not in any kind of relationship with anyone."

"Sorry. I was just curious to know why you're so interested in her, that's all."

Blade exhaled deeply. "Okay, I admit that I do like her, but as a friend. Nothing more. I promise."

Jammer nodded knowingly. "Pity. I was hoping you'd be something more than that by now. From the little I saw of you two together, you'd be perfect for each other. I'll see you later."

For the first time in a very long time, Blade was left completely speechless.

…

"Thank you for your assistance, Captain," Vice Admiral Sharp said as he gathered up all the paperwork and files in front of him. "I think I have the full story pieced together now. With your permission, I'll go and arrest Commander Grayson on the charges we discussed."

The Captain shook his head sadly. "I still can't believe Grayson stooped to doing something so low. Will he have to go to prison?"

"Possibly. Even without Lieutenant Chopper's statement, there's more than enough evidence to convict him. Oh, and you can tell Lieutenant Chopper, when she's stronger, that I'm going to grant her an honourable Medical Discharge from the Coast Guard, based on Captain Carler's recommendation. From the medical reports I've seen, there's a strong chance that she will fly again, now that she's undergone the surgery she needed, but psychologically, I know she won't be able to cope with the demands of continuing her career as a military Search and Rescue helicopter. She'll require extensive counselling for at least the next six months."

"I'm sorry to hear that. She's one of the best Search and Rescue helicopters we have here."

"I'm not going to let her talents go to waste."

"You're not?"

"No. Once she's made a full recovery, she'll have a position as a Search and Rescue helicopter at Piston Peak Nation Park."

The Captain smiled a little. "I'm sure she'd like that. You know, she only joined the Coast Guard after her brother was killed in a freak accident. She didn't want to go into the regular army or navy, because she was afraid of leaving her parents all alone in their old age, but she still wanted to do something for her country in honour of her brother."

Hearing that, Vice Admiral Sharp felt a knot rise in his throat. Clearly, Lieutenant Chopper was worthy of an honourable discharge. He just wished he could do more for her.

"I won't detain you any longer, Vice Admiral. Please, do what you have to do regarding Commander Grayson."

Nodding, Vice Admiral Sharp left the Captain's office. Beckoning to the two officers waiting in the hallway for him, he headed towards the ramp. Once outside, the three of them made their way across the compound to Commander Grayson's hanger.

Hearing someone barge into his hanger, Commander Grayson jumped. His eyes widened when he saw who was driving towards him.

"Vice Admiral Sharp!" he gasped. "What a pleasant surprise! Please, come in…"

"Commander Thomas Grayson?" Vice Admiral Sharp asked firmly.

"Yes, sir?"

Vice Admiral Sharp glanced at the clock on the wall. "The current time is fourteen forty-six. I am hereby placing you under arrest for providing false official statements under Article 107; for Conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman under Article 133, and for false or unauthorised pass offenses under General Article 134. You are hereby relieved of all command. Please remain still while these officers place the wheel clamp on you. Just remember, anything you say will be held against you in your Court-Martial, which will take place in the Coast Guard Court of Criminal Appeals at the earliest possible date. Do you have anything you wish to say?"

Commander Grayson shook his head. He was still trying to comprehend what had just happened to him. Then, as he began to process the charges against him, he looked straight at Vice Admiral Sharp.

"This is all to do with Lieutenant Chopper going AWOL, isn't it? Sir, I had nothing to do with that! She went AWOL all by herself."

"But you did falsify her leave pass, didn't you?" Vice Admiral Sharp challenged.

"No. The base Captain signed it. I…" Realising what he'd just said, Commander Grayson quickly decided to shut up.

Vice Admiral Sharp gestured towards the hanger door with his eyes. "Take him away!" he ordered the two officers. They happily obliged.

 **Thank you everyone, for your reviews! I now know exactly what's going to happen from now on. Since I'm Australian, I've had to do a bit of research into the American military legal system to ensure I got the details correct. I've studied the basics of law, so I do understand some of the basic differences between Australian and American law. I'm sorry if I've still managed to make mistakes. I'm sure there will be at least one. There's only so much I can learn online.**

 **Please, keep the reviews coming! I really appreciate all feedback.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Disclaimer: All recognisable characters belong to Disney. All OCs belong to me.**

Chapter 16

"Lieutenant? Sara? Can you hear me?"

Sara groaned, wishing the persistent feminine voice would go away and let her sleep in peace.

"She's been like this for a whole week now," a masculine voice said quietly. "Whenever we try to wake her up, she appears to regain consciousness, but then she drifts back off to sleep again."

"Let's do another CT scan," a second male voice said. "We might have missed something."

"No," Sara tried to say, but she wasn't sure if they could hear her, so she tried again. "No."

"What was that you just said, dear?" the female forklift nurse asked her kindly.

"I said, no. I don't need another scan. I'm awake now." And Sara slowly blinked open her eyes. This time, the light didn't hurt her, but it was still very intense, so it took a few minutes for her eyes to adjust. Parked in front of her were two white SUVs, who were obviously medical staff. The nurse was parked to her left.

"Well, Lieutenant," the SUV on the right said. "It looks like you're finally starting to make a proper recovery. How are you feeling now?"

"Tired still, but better."

The other SUV nodded. "You will tire easily for a good while yet. We want you to stay still and quiet for at least another week, and then if you're feeling stronger, we can start letting you move around outside for short periods at a time so you can get some fresh air. When you're able to do that without tiring, we'll talk about letting you fly again."

"So, I will be able to fly again?" Sara asked hopefully.

"In theory, yes. However, a lot will depend on you. You need to be patient with yourself, and not push yourself too hard or too fast. The injury you sustained is a very delicate one, and even though the operation was a success, there's no way of knowing if you'll ever regain the flying strength you once had."

Sara exhaled deeply. "I see."

"Doctor Skyes?" the nurse interjected. "Don't forget that Lieutenant Chopper has a very special guest waiting to see her."

"Yes, of course," the SUV on the right replied. He turned back towards Sara. "Do you feel well enough to see your guest today, Lieutenant?"

"I think so," Sara replied.

"Good. He's been waiting to speak to you all week, so we'll send him in."

The doctors and the nurse left. A moment later, a shiny white and gold Hummer drove into Sara's hospital room. Seeing the insignia painted on the Hummer's doors, Sara instinctively snapped to attention.

"Ow!" she yelped as a bolt of pain shot throughout her entire body.

"At ease, Lieutenant. I do not expect anyone who's been hospitalised to follow military curtesy if they're physically incapable of doing so, like you are."

"Sorry, Vice-Admiral," Sara replied as she slowly eased her aching body. "I acted on instinct."

"Understandably. Now, I have a few things I need to talk to you about…"

Sara visibly paled. "Is this about my court-martial?"

Vice-Admiral Sharp looked at her in surprise. "What? No, on the contrary, it's you're former commander, Commander Greyson, who's being court-martialled."

"Commander Greyson?" Sara gasped. "Why?"

"Before I answer that question, I need to inform you that, for legal reasons, this interview is going to be recorded. Are you comfortable with that?"

"Yes." There was a brief pause, before Sara quickly added, "Sir."

"Right." And Vice-Admiral Sharp started the recording. "Do you remember what you told me when you regained consciousness a week ago?"

"Uh…no. No, sir, I barely even remember waking up."

"I see. Well, you told me, when I questioned you, that Commander Greyson had betrayed you. You said that initially, he wasn't going to have you court-martialled for going AWOL, but then he changed his mind when you rejected his advances."

Sara was astonished. "I said all of that?"

"Yes. After that, I conducted my own investigation, and I uncovered a trail of documents that didn't seem to add up. When I dug deeper, I found that Commander Greyson had issued you with a three month pass, counter-signed by you base Captain. He's admitted to me that he'd hoped you would return before it expired, which you did. However, Greyson forgot something very important. He forgot that you had to take the pass with you for it to be valid. So, yes, it was obvious then that you had gone AWOL, but I needed to know why. That led me to finding out about your rescue mission during Hurricane Jasper."

Sara gazed sadly at the ground in front of her. "I couldn't live with the fact that that poor captain had drowned when it was my job to rescue him. I chose to go AWOL to get away from the memory that I as good as killed him."

"So, what made you change your mind and decide to come back, hmm?"

"It was Blade. Blade Ranger. He's the fire and rescue chief at Piston Peak Air Attack. He made me realise that flying away wouldn't solve anything. Then Commander Greyson found me, and he promised me that I wouldn't be court-martialled. It wasn't until I was aboard the _Dwight D Flysenhower_ , when I was placed under arrest, that I realised that he'd betrayed me."

"And a few days later, you took part in that rescue, which ended up with you crashing and injuring yourself, correct?"

"Yes, sir."

"Okay." There was silence for a few minutes while Vice-Admiral Sharp collected his thoughts. "Lieutenant Chopper. I hope you now understand the seriousness of your actions in deciding to go AWOL?"

"Yes, sir. And, as I said to Commander Greyson before he told me I wouldn't be court-martialled, I'm fully prepared to accept the full penalty for my actions. I acted selfishly through fear, and even though I thought I knew what I was doing at the time, I should've listened to Commander Greyson and accepted his referral to the base psychiatrist. I thought I was okay, but now I know that I wasn't. I've never had anyone die while I was rescuing them, so I didn't know how to react. That isn't something we're really trained for."

Vice-Admiral Sharp nodded slowly the whole time Sara was speaking. What she said was entirely true. While the army, navy and air force had plenty of support for dealing with emotional trauma sustained on the job, that support hadn't yet found its way into the Search and Rescue system. If Sara had been able to speak to a psychologist immediately after she'd arrived back at the base, despite the hurricane, this whole situation might never have happened in the first place. She'd been frightened over the consequences of not being able to save somebody's life, which she'd obviously believed to be far worse than the consequences of going AWOL. Something would have to be done quickly to change that.

"Lieutenant Chopper. In my position as Vice-Admiral, it comes down to me to decide who will be court-martialled, and I've made my decision regarding your case. You will not be court-martialled for going AWOL, because you decided of your own free will to return to your duties. However, you will still face several consequences because of your actions. I have decided to grant you an honourable medical discharge from your duties with the Coast Guard Search and Rescue team. This will take effect the moment you are discharge from this hospital."

Sara gasped in disbelief. _Discharged?_ "But, sir! What else can I do? I'm a Search and Rescue helicopter! I'm not trained to do anything else!"

"Come, now. It isn't as bad as you think."

"It isn't?"

"No. You have a job waiting for you at the Piston Peak Air Attack."

Sara gasped again. "Piston Peak? How? Why? When did this happen?"

"Superintendent Jammer wrote to me about three weeks ago, requesting your transfer. Of course, he didn't know then that you'd been injured, but I decided not to tell him anything until you knew about it. So, will you accept the job?"

"Yes, yes, of course! But, sir? Couldn't you make it an official transfer instead of discharging me? Even if it is an honourable discharge, I don't want my career to end that way. Please?"

"You really know how to ask for things, don't you?"

Sara shrugged. "I'm a woman."

"Obviously! All right. Since the park is managed by the government, I'll make it an official transfer. But you won't have any further connections with the Coast Guard, understood?"

"Perfectly, sir," Sara replied, smiling for the first time. "And thank you."

"It's the least I can do, considering your case has helped uncover some flaws within the Coast Guard. Oh, and while I remember…" He held out a box with his tyre. "This is for you."

Using her nose, Sara gently flicked the lid off the box. She gasped when she saw what was inside. It was a Coast Guard medal!

"Sir! You can't! I don't deserve this!"

"You do. Your Captain told me how you volunteered to fly directly into the path of Hurricane Jasper to rescue the sinking trawler. Although one life was lost, you did save six other lives. It's time you started focusing on that. And, if you read the official report into the incident, you'll find that the coroner believed the trawler captain would've drowned anyway, no matter what you did."

"He would've?" Sara whispered under her breath.

"Yes. You couldn't have saved him. But those six other crew members owe their lives to you. You did everything you could've done in the circumstances. Now, I understand that you were on the cusp of being promoted as well, correct?"

"Uh… Yes, sir. That is correct."

"Very well. I will grant you that promotion. You are now, officially, Lieutenant-Commander Chopper."

Sara had started to feel giddy. This was too much for her to take in at once. "Sir… I… I'm not feeling well…"

One of the machines connected to Sara began beeping alarmingly. Two nurses promptly rushed into the room as Sara began to pass out.

"What happened?" one of the nurses demanded to know.

"I'm not sure, exactly," Vice-Admiral Sharp replied nervously. "We were talking, and she seemed well enough until I told her about her promotion…"

"She's in shock!" the other nurse exclaimed. "And I think she's having an engine attack too!"

Her colleague slammed the panic button on the wall with her forklift arm. Vice-Admiral Sharp moved back into an empty corner as a team of doctors and nurses rushed to Sara's aid. Seconds later, a single continuous tone sounded from the machine. Sara was flat-lining.

 **Hey everyone! I am sooooo sorry that it's taken me so long to update this story. Thank you for your patience! For those who don't know, I was away interstate for a month, and owing to the volunteer work I was doing, I had very little time for writing. Also, I kept having writer's block with this story. I wrote the first part of this chapter before Christmas, but I wasn't happy with it, and so I left it until tonight. I decided to delete what I'd written, and to start afresh, which resulted in this chapter being far more dramatic than I'd planned for, so I'm really happy with it now and I hope you are too. I'm looking forward to reading your feedback! Thanks again!**


	17. Chapter 17

**Disclaimer: All recognisable characters belong to Disney. All OCs belong to me.**

Chapter 17

Back in his office in Washington D.C., Vice-Admiral Sharp tried to focus on the pile of paperwork in front of him, but he couldn't stop thinking about Lieutenant-Commander Sara Chopper. It had been two weeks since her near-fatal engine attack, which had been brought on by the shock of being told that she wasn't to blame from the tragic death of the trawler captain she'd tried in vain to save. It was as though, in that moment, a tremendous weight had been removed from her, and in her weakened state, she hadn't been able to physically cope with the shock. The news of her promotion instead of her expected demotion had also contributed to her dramatic collapse. Fortunately, owing to the prompt response by the hospital staff, Lieutenant-Commander Chopper had managed to pull though, but only just. However, Vice-Admiral Sharp couldn't seem to stop blaming himself for almost killing her. As a result of his insensitivity, her doctor had decided that only Lieutenant-Commander Chopper's immediate family could visit her for short periods at a time while she remained in the ICU. And so, Vice-Admiral Sharp had returned to Washington to finish compiling his report into Lieutenant-Commander Chopper's case, and to put together all of the evidence he had in preparation for Commander Greyson's court-martial. He had hoped that Lieutenant-Commander Chopper would be well enough to testify against her former Commander, but now that did not appear likely, nor was it really necessary. He had more than enough evidence to have Commander Greyson jailed for at least a couple of years. A dishonourable discharged seemed to be a more likely conviction though.

Sighing despondently, Vice-Admiral Sharp closed the file he'd been reading. He was about to close his eyes to rest them for a few minutes, when he saw a piece of paper sticking out from beneath the file. After he'd moved the file out of the way, he saw that the paper was the request form for Lieutenant-Commander Chopper to join the Piston Peak Air Attack. Seeing it made Vice-Admiral Sharp feel a stab of guilt in his tank. He'd been so busy, he'd forgotten to phone Superintendent Jammer to let him know how Lieutenant-Commander Chopper was going. He quickly dialled the number. His call was answered after five rings.

"Piston Peak National Park. Superintendent Jammer speaking," an elderly voice said.

"Superintendent Jammer, this is Vice-Admiral Sharp from the U.S. Coast Guard. I'm phoning to let you know how Lieutenant-Commander Chopper is recovering."

They spoke for several minutes. As much as it pained Vice-Admiral Sharp to admit that Lieutenant-Commander Chopper's current condition was his fault, he didn't see the point in concealing any of the facts. Her friends had a right to know how she going.

"I see," Superintendent Jammer said once Vice-Admiral Sharp had finished with his update. "Do you have any idea when she might be released from hospital?"

"At this stage, no, I don't, sorry. I'm hoping it'll happen before the court-martial of her former Commander, but that doesn't look likely. What she needs most of all right now is time. And quiet. I'm not even allowed to see her anymore."

"Well, thank you very much for the update. Please, keep us informed of her progress."

"I will."

…

"That's it, Sara dear," Mrs Chopper gently encouraged her daughter. "Just a few more feet, and then you can rest."

Wheezing heavily, Sara slowly rolled forwards again. It had been two weeks since her near-fatal engine attack, and this was the first time she'd been allowed outside for some fresh air. A couple of forklift nurses followed along behind, pushing the machines that had to stay connected to Sara while she recovered. Sara finally couldn't go any further, and so she stopped beneath a shady tree.

Closing her eyes for a few minutes, Sara concentrated on getting her breath back. The nurses made sure she was comfortable before they left her alone with her parents. Sara's parents, who were both Sikorsky S-61 helicopters, parked on either side of her, so they could also rest in the shade.

After a few moments of complete silence, Mr Chopper spoke up. "So, will you take the position at Piston Peak?"

"Maybe," Sara whispered. "Right now, I just want to concentrate on getting better. I still have a long way to go before I'll even be allowed to try and fly again." As she spoke, Sara looked up at the sky, silently wishing she could just take off then and there. Being grounded was torturous for aircraft. It was like taking the wheels away from a land vehicle.

"Well, whatever you decide to do, you know we'll support you," Mrs Chopper said. "I just hope you do continue to keep serving the community in John's honour."

"Yes…" And Sara closed her eyes again. She was feeling completely exhausted, and all she wanted to do was fall asleep in the fresh, salty air. It was blissfully refreshing to her poor, fragile body.

Mrs Chopper must have been about to try and rouse her, because Sara vaguely heard her father say, "No, dear, let her sleep. That's what the doctors said she needs more than anything else; plenty of rest and fresh air. She's out of danger now, so just let her heal…"

…

Meanwhile, at Piston Peak Air Attack, winter had finally arrived. While it wasn't quite cold enough for snow, being only the first week of December, the early morning frosts were enough to make everyone complain. Except for the smokejumpers, maybe. They loved skidding around on the icy runway, seeing how far each of them could slide. There wasn't enough ice for them to skate on yet, and what little ice was about had usually melted by midday.

Blade watched the smokejumpers' antics from the warmth of Maru's hanger. For once, he wasn't complaining about undergoing his routine maintenance. Because of that, Maru had decided to take advantage of the fire chief's quietness by carrying out the last of the repairs he needed to do to Blade's hydraulics system, which had been left untouched since he'd been superficially burned during the big fire a year earlier.

Finally, talkative little Maru couldn't stand Blade's silence a moment longer. "What's eating ya, Blade?" he asked.

A small sigh escaped from the helicopter. "Nothing."

"It's Sara, ain't it?"

Blade whipped himself around so quickly, that his tail almost knocked Maru off his perch. Caught off-guard, Maru shrank back as Blade bore down on him. Now, Maru wasn't easily intimidated by anyone, especially Blade, but something in Blade's eyes frightened him. Seeing how nervous Maru was, Blade softened, and he backed away. Maru breathed a small sigh of relief, and he started to gather up his tools. He consoled himself with the fact that at least he'd almost finished working on Blade anyway. He just had to tighten bolt and close Blade's inspection panel. He looked over at where Blade had gone. He was just sitting in the doorway, watching the smokejumpers again. Maru cautiously approached him again, armed with his trusty screwdriver.

"I just don't want to hurt her," Blade said under his breath. It was said so quietly, Maru wasn't even sure if he'd heard it.

"Sara?" he whispered, hoping to get Blade to tell him more without losing his temper again.

"Yeah…"

Maru cautiously resumed his task of tightening the bolt. Blade didn't even seem to notice him. That is, until Maru slammed his inspection panel shut, making the helicopter jump.

"There!" Maru said triumphantly. "Better than new! You're all good to go."

Turning slightly, Blade smiled a little. "Thanks Maru. And…I'm sorry…"

Maru gave Blade one of his crooked smiles. "No news is good news, right?"

Blade nodded slightly. He understood what the little forklift meant by that. Leaving the hanger, Blade taxied out onto the runway. He'd just started his engines, and he was preparing to take off, when he saw a small orange fixed-wing airplane flying towards the base.

"Blade, I've just cleared Dusty for landing," Patch informed him over the radio. "You'll have to wait until he's landed before you take off."

Blade was about to reply when a flash of yellow shot past him. It was Lil' Dipper.

"DUSTY!" Dipper screeched at the top of her lungs.

"Dipper! Get off the runway!" Blade ordered.

Sheepishly, Dipper quickly obeyed, giving Dusty enough room to land safely. Leaving them to catch up on their romance, Blade took off. He just wanted to spend some time enjoying the fresh air before the base got snowed in. If it got too bad, they'd have to evacuate, and then he'd have to spend the winter at a busy airport in Los Angeles.

Even since Nick's untimely death, Blade had avoided L.A. as much as possible. He couldn't stand the claustrophobia he got there, not to mention the risk of being recognised by an old fan of _CHoPs_. But sometimes, he had little choice in the matter, and if Superintendent Jammer ordered the park to evacuate because of the weather, he'd have to go.

The fresh air helped to clear Blade's thoughts, but one thought remained with him. Sara. It was true. He didn't want to hurt her, but at the same time, he couldn't stop thinking about her. Deep down, he knew he was in love with her, but he didn't want to admit that to anyone, least of all himself.

As Blade flew over the Fusel Lodge, he saw Superintendent Jammer parked out the front, talking to a couple of guests. Hoping that Jammer might have heard an update about Sara, Blade decided to land.

Once Jammer had finished talking to the guests, he drove over to Blade. "Good afternoon, Blade. How are things up at the base?"

"Quiet," Blade replied. "Well, as quiet as the smokejumpers are anyway."

Jammer laughed. "Still causing trouble, are they? Never mind. They'll grow out of it. Eventually…"

Blade smiled a little. "Have you had any updates about Sara?"

"I have, actually. Vice-Admiral Sharp phoned me personally, earlier this morning. Apparently, two weeks ago, he inadvertently gave Sara such a shock that she suffered an engine attack and collapsed. Luckily, the doctors and nurses managed to get her onto life support quickly, so she is expected to make a full recovery. She's still very weak and in intensive care, but things are looking promising."

"What was the shock Vice-Admiral gave to Sara that could've caused an engine attack?" Blade wondered aloud.

"He'd just given her a promotion to Lieutenant-Commander," Jammer replied.

Blade's eyes widened in surprise. "Oh." He couldn't think of anything else to say.

 **Thank you all for your reviews! I can assure you, they're greatly appreciated. Please, keep them coming.**


	18. Chapter 18

**Disclaimer: All recognisable characters belong to Disney. All OCs belong to me.**

Chapter 18

 **3 months later…**

A bitter late winter wind whipped around Sara as she stood parked out in the middle of the Coast Guard Search and Rescue base. She'd been moved from the base hospital to a rehab facility two months earlier. During her rehab, she'd had to relearn how to fly again. She'd been in a lot of pain at first, while her new rotor shaft got used to supporting her weight in the air, but she'd battled through the pain. Secretly, she still hoped that if she was able to fly as well as she had before her accident, she might be able to continue with her career with the Coast Guard. That small glimmer of hope had helped her through the worst of her rehab. While she knew she still had a job waiting for her at the Piston Peak Air Attack, she really wanted to stay in the Coast Guard.

Now, Sara was preparing to undertake her very first solo flight as part of the final phase of her recovery. If she could do this, the team of specialists taking care of her would release her from their care. She glanced around the base, which as usual, was a hive of activity. Instinctively, Sara began looking for Commander Grayson, but then she remembered what had happened. During Sara's recovery, her former Commander had been convicted on all charges in his court-martial. Sara, thankfully, had not been called to testify, even though she'd been instructed to be prepared to appear if necessary. However, the evidence against Grayson had been so damning, that he'd been advised by his lawyer to plead guilty, which he did, before being convicted. As punishment, Grayson had been stripped of all honours and he'd been dishonourably discharged from the Coast Guard. Despite what Grayson had done to her, Sara had felt that the punishment had been fair.

"Lieutenant-Commander Chopper?" someone called, snapping Sara out of her thoughts. Turning, she saw the base Captain coming across the tarmac towards her. Sara instinctively came to attention.

"Sir!"

"At ease. I just came to see how well you were recovering."

"As you can see, sir, I'm just about ready to return to my duties."

"Uh… About that… I'm afraid you won't be able to return to your duties here…"

"But… I thought… That is… Am I not even going to be given a chance?" Sara was close to tears now.

"I'm afraid not," the Captain replied. "Do you remember the load test you underwent last week?"

"Yes…"

"Well, I'm afraid you no longer meet the minimum load limit required for you to be in the Coast Guard."

"What? But…how?"

"Your new rotor shaft just isn't as strong as the one you were built with. It will be at least ten years before it is as strong as it was before your accident. Because of that, you'll be better off leaving the Coast Guard so you can do a job you're more suited for."

"You mean, the job at Piston Peak?" Sara asked in a low voice.

"Yes. Vice-Admiral Sharp has made it an official transfer for you, as you requested. You'll still be a Search and Rescue helicopter; just not in the Coast Guard. I'm sorry it's happened this way, but you are much better off than most vehicles who receive a medical discharge."

Sara nodded, only because she didn't know what to say. The Captain was right. Sara was very lucky. Every day, wounded and damaged vehicles returned to America from the war zone in the middle-east; many of them had no hope of being able to drive or fly normally again. Sara smiled a little. Clearly, the counselling sessions she'd also been required to undertake during her rehab were also having a positive effect on her attitude. She no longer felt responsible for the trawler captain's death, but his death still haunted her. That was something the base counsellor was still helping her with.

Taking a deep breath of fresh, salty air, Sara glanced up at the sky. She could do a whole lot worse for herself than Piston Peak Air Attack. At least there she'd still be able to save lives, and then of course there was Blade…

Sara licked her lips and she shivered, but it wasn't from the cold. The thought of Blade made her shiver with excitement, but she couldn't understand why. She didn't love him, did she?

"He's probably found someone else by now anyway," Sara muttered aloud to herself.

"Sorry?" the Captain interjected. "Did you say something?"

Sara shook herself. "Nothing, sir. Just talking to myself."

"That's the first sign of madness."

"No, it isn't. The first sign of madness is when you start back-chatting yourself," Sara refuted.

The Captain smirked. "Very smart. Now, stop back-chatting your superiors. You have a solo flight to undertake, don't you?"

"Yes, sir!" Sara said, saluting the Captain smartly with one of her rotors. The large forklift returned the salute. Turning, Sara then taxied over to the helicopter take-off zone.

"HH-60J 6040 to control tower. Requesting permission for special flight, over."

"Control tower to HH-60J 6040. Request acknowledged and confirmed. Orders are for you to stick to your designated flightpath. You're cleared for take-off. Over."

"HH-60J 6040 copies. Out."

Sara started up her engines. They roared just as loudly as they had before her accident, making her smile again. Her rotors began to spin, faster and faster until she finally had enough lift to take off into the sky.

Sara's designated route that day took her out over land as well as over the ocean. From the air, she was delighted to see that nearly everything had returned to normal after Hurricane Jasper. Early spring grass was just beginning to break through the soil, creating an uneven patchwork of green, yellow and brown down below her.

Sara was just beginning to follow her flightpath out over the ocean, when she heard some static come over her radio. Through the static, she could just make out a feminine voice desperately calling, "Mayday! Mayday!"

Puzzled, Sara paused, hovering for a moment. Then she decided to radio the control tower. "HH-60J 6040 to the Coast Guard control tower. I'm receiving reports of a Mayday call. No details. Will await further instructions, over."

"Coast Guard control tower to HH-60J 6040. Investigate Mayday call, but take no action until you report back to us. Over."

"Understood. Out."

Sara turned up the volume on her radio, listening attentively for the Mayday call to come through again. She didn't have long to wait.

"Mayday! Mayday!" The call was coming in a bit stronger now.

"This is the Coast Guard," Sara immediately replied. "Please state the nature of your Mayday."

"This is the Jasmine," the caller replied. "I was hit by a freak wave, and both of my crew members were swept overboard. I can't locate them now."

"Copy that. What are your co-ordinates, and are you upright?"

Jasmine gave her co-ordinates. "I am upright and I've suffered no damage. I can make it back to shore by myself."

"Please stay where you are so I can find you," Sara instructed.

"I will."

Sara was about to head towards the co-ordinates, when she paused. Since she was only on a special flight, she couldn't do anything without permission from the control tower. That frustrated her greatly, but she contacted them anyway.

"You are the closest helicopter," the tower controller replied. "Go to the site and begin searching for the two crew members. We'll send back-up immediately."

Sara was about to protest, but then she reminded herself that she was still under doctor's orders. "Orders acknowledged. Will keep you informed. Out."

It only took Sara about twenty minutes to locate Jasmine; a pleasure cruiser. True to her word, she was okay, but the absence of anyone on board her was worrying.

"I have back-up on the way," Sara reassured Jasmine. "Please, stay where you are. We will let you know when it is okay for you to return to shore."

"I understand," Jasmine replied anxiously. "Please, just find my crew. One of them is my boss. I don't know what I'd do without him."

"We'll do our very best," Sara promised. She then took off to begin her search using her thermal imaging camera. She'd have to work fast. Daylight was just beginning to fade, and the search area was huge.

After about an hour of searching alone, Sara's back-up finally arrived. They were two of her friends, Lieutenants Aaron Martin and Phillip Rotor, who were also Sikorsky MH-60 Jayhawk helicopters.

"Any luck?" Phillip asked.

"Nothing," Sara replied despondently.

"Let's break up the search area," Aaron suggested. "Given the ocean currents, there's no point in looking to the north-west. We need to focus our search to the south and east."

"I'm starting to run low on fuel," Sara informed them. "I wasn't supposed to be out here this long."

"You should go back then," Phillip told her firmly. "We'll continue the search until it becomes too dark to keep going."

Even though Sara really wanted to stay and help, she knew that she couldn't. "I'll give an initial report to the Captain. Can Jasmine return to shore now too?"

"Yes, there's no point in her staying now that we know exactly where to search," Aaron said. "Thanks for your help. We can take it from here."

Nodding, Sara flew over to Jasmine, to tell her that she could now return to shore. Then Sara began her long flight back to base.

…

The sun had almost set by the time Sara arrived back at base. After obtaining permission to land, Sara did so. The Captain and one of her doctors was waiting for her as she came in to land. Sara had all of her lights on, and with the aid of the base's floodlights, she managed to land safely.

"Report, Lieutenant-Commander?" the Captain ordered as Sara shut down her engines.

"Two civilians fell overboard a pleasure cruiser, sir," Sara replied. "The pleasure cruiser was uninjured and is now on her way back to shore. No sightings of the two crewmen. Lieutenants Martin and Rotors agreed to search until the light faded."

"Very good. Flight Surgeon Davies here wants to examine you before you return to your hanger."

"Yes, sir."

"Come with me, please, Lieutenant-Commander," Flight Surgeon Davies ordered.

Sara followed him over to the huge first-aid building. She yawned tiredly when the flight surgeon escorted her into one of the examination rooms designed for helicopters her size.

"Right, well aside from being exhausted, how are you feeling?" he asked her.

"Not too bad. Although, now that you mention it, my rotor shaft is beginning to hurt again now."

"I'm not surprised. That was the longest flight you've undertaken since your accident, which is why I wanted to examine you." He picked up his stethoscope. "I'm just going to listen to your lungs. Take a few deep breaths for me, please."

Sara did so, but she found she was really struggling to stay awake. Long before the Flight Surgeon had even finished his exam, Sara had drifted off to sleep…

…

The familiar tune of _Reveille_ woke Sara abruptly the following morning. Gasping, she blinked open her eyes to discover that she was back in her own hanger. She must have been towed there after she fell asleep.

It was very unusual for _Reveille_ to be played at the Coast Guard base, so obviously something very important must have happened. Groaning, Sara reluctantly stood up straight in her wheels, and she shook herself to wake herself up. Outside, a whistle began to sound, so obviously she wasn't the only one struggling to get up. Grimacing, Sara left her hanger, and immediately regretted it. It was pre-dawn, absolutely freezing outside, and an icy drizzle was falling.

Braving the cold, Sara fell into rank alongside the other Lieutenant-Commanders, at the back of the parade. So far, only about half of the base's residents were on parade, so Sara didn't feel quite as bad as she might have done if she'd been one of the last.

"Everyone, fall out on parade!" the Captain barked through a loudspeaker. "If you're not on parade within the next ten seconds, you'll be on clean-up patrol!"

That immediately brought the rest of the base's residents dashing onto the tarmac. Some of the younger seamen and petty officers tripped over themselves as they hurried to avoid punishment.

Finally, everyone was lined up on parade. The Captain began driving up and down the ranks, inspecting each vehicle under his command. When he reached Sara, he paused in front of her. She continued standing at attention, eyes straight ahead, as she'd been trained to do.

"Fall out, Lieutenant-Commander," the Captain ordered. Sara promptly obeyed. She was beginning to wonder if she'd done something wrong. "Follow me."

Sara followed the Captain all the way to the front of the parade. Once there, the Captain turned to face everyone, and Sara did the same. Then the Captain addressed those assembled.

"We don't normally do things like this, but for those of you who have never met Lieutenant-Commander Chopper, I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce her to you. Lieutenant-Commander Chopper has been with the US Coast Guard as a Search and Rescue helicopter for the last six years, after deciding to help others after the tragic and sudden death of her older brother. During her time with us, she has proven to be a trusted and valued member of the Search and Rescue unit. Recently, she was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Commander, and she was awarded the Coast Guard medal for her contribution to the service. Sadly, Lieutenant-Commander Chopper was injured during an off-shore rescue late last year, and as a result, she will no longer be able to remain with us. However, as of next week, she is being officially transferred to Piston Peak National Park, where she will continue to utilise her valuable skills as a Search and Rescue helicopter for the Piston Peak Air Attack. So now, I'd like you all to join me in giving Lieutenant-Commander Chopper the recognition she so thoroughly deserves."

Applause immediately broke out from the ranks lined up in front of Sara. Deeply touched by the public recognition she was receiving, tears sprang to Sara's eyes. Taking a deep breath, she turned to face the Captain.

"Thank you, sir. I am deeply touched by this. But…couldn't you have waited until breakfast time?"

The Captain chuckled. "I like to keep everyone on their tyres. By the way, you should know that both crew members that were thrown overboard yesterday have been recovered. They're alive, and despite some minor injuries, they were completely unharmed by their ordeal. They spent the night recovering in hospital. Luckily, they were smart enough to wear life jackets. So many vehicles don't."

"That's a relief," Sara said, smiling. "I was so worried about them."

"I noticed," the Captain said sarcastically. "You were so fast asleep last night that you didn't even flinch when we moved you!"

 **I am so sorry it has taken me so long to update this story. Life got in the way, lol! Anyway, a big thank you to those of you who have taken the time to write a review. Please, keep them coming! This story is only half finished, so there's still plenty more to come...**


	19. Chapter 19

**Disclaimer: All recognisable characters belong to Disney. All OCs belong to me.**

Chapter 19

"Are you quite comfortable back there, Lieutenant-Commander Chopper?" the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy asked for the umpteenth time.

"Yes, I'm perfectly fine, thank you, Captain," Sara replied evenly. She wasn't in conditions anywhere near five-star, but as far as the military went, she was travelling in luxury.

Sara was now on her way back to Piston Peak National Park, albeit under very different circumstances to when she'd last made this journey, about four months earlier. Considering how sick she'd made herself last time by flying on diesel instead of aviation fuel, Vice-Admiral Sharp had insisted on giving Sara first-class treatment. He'd even personally supervised the arrangement of the Lockheed to transport her to the other side of the country. The Lockheed wasn't on a wasted journey either. He was taking valuable military supplies to the naval bases in Hawaii.

Sara still had mixed feelings about her transfer to Piston Peak. While she was looking forward to being in a less stressful job, she realised that she really didn't know the guys at the Air Attack very well. They were still strangers to her really. She exhaled deeply. _Guess they won't be strangers for much longer…_

"Lockheed 89-0016 to Piston Peak Fusel Lodge airstrip. Request permission to land. Over."

There was silence for a few minutes, but then a male voice responded.

"Permission to land granted, Lockheed 89-0016. Please use runway number three. It's the longest we have. Over."

"Copy that. Lockheed 89-0016, out."

…

Meanwhile, inside the Fusel Lodge, Blade was inside Jammer's office. While they knew that Sara was due to arrive that day, they had no idea how she'd be arriving. Blade guessed that this Vice-Admiral Sharp, who'd been the only one in communication with them since Sara's accident, would arrange something. He doubted the Vice-Admiral would let Sara fly alone so soon after her recovery. The rest of the Piston Peak gang, except for Patch and Dusty (who was away racing), were waiting out in the foyer for Sara to arrive.

Blade exhaled heavily. While he secretly couldn't wait for Sara's arrival, outwardly, he tried to appear indifferent and professional.

Suddenly, a voice came over the radio. "Superintendent Jammer? I've just had a request from a Lockheed to land here at the Fusel Lodge."

Jammer's eyes double in size and he snatched up the microphone with his tyre. "Did you say a Lockheed?"

"Yes. It's a full, military Lockheed. I can already see it approaching."

"Give it permission to land on runway three. Let's just hope it doesn't crash."

Blade stared at Jammer in amazement as the elderly car set the microphone back down on the bench.

"That's got to be Sara!" Blade exclaimed. "A Lockheed is the only aircraft I know that's capable of transporting a Jayhawk!"

Jammer nodded. "You're right. Let's go."

Outside the Fusel Lodge, a crowd was already starting to gather. Blade could see the Lockheed descending down into the narrow valley that made up the Piston peak Nation Park. What the Lockheed was about to do would never be attempted by a commercial airliner, but Blade had to remind himself that military aircraft were properly trained for these kinds of landings and take-offs. He'd had his doubts about Cabbie when the old Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar had first arrived at Piston Peak, but Cabbie had proven himself to be extremely nimble and manoeuvrable in the narrow canyons and mountainous terrain.

The Lockheed was now entering his final approach. Blade held his breath when he heard the Lockheed start to reverse his engines. A few seconds later, his tyres touched the tarmac, and he touched down smoothly. The Lockheed then put his engines into full reverse, which slowed him down incredibly quickly. Even so, he only just managed to come to a stop a few feet away from the end of the runway. He sat there for a moment to catch his breath, before turning to face the crowd of on-lookers.

"I'm looking for Superintendent Jammer," the Lockheed announced.

Everyone immediately looked at the elderly car. Jammer drove closer.

"I understand that you're expecting a transfer?" the Lockheed asked.

"That is correct," Jammer replied. "Lieutenant-Commander Chopper."

The Lockheed smiled, and he began to lower his rear cargo bay door. A moment later, Sara slowly emerged. She stared nervously at the crowd for a moment, before moving around to face the Lockheed.

"Thank you for transporting me here, Captain," she said, saluting him.

"You're quite welcome, Lieutenant-Commander. I hope it all goes well for you here."

"Me too," Sara muttered under her breath. She gave the Lockheed a parting salute, before going over to Jammer and Blade. "Lieutenant-Commander Chopper reporting for duty as requested, sir!"

Jammer shifted awkwardly. He wasn't used to military courtesies. "Ahh… Do you have to be so…military, Sara?"

"Until I'm ordered otherwise, sir, I must," Sara replied promptly.

Jammer wasn't the only one feeling awkward. Blade was too. This was a side to Sara that none of them had ever seen before, but Blade guessed that her time back with the Coast Guard had reminded her of her duties. However, he was sure he'd be able to get her to loosen up quickly.

"You can drop the military courtesies, Sara," Blade told her firmly. "And yes, that is an order."

Now Sara was the one to look awkward. Blade exhaled deeply again.

"Right, well, now that we've cleared that up, let's get you settled in at the Air Attack. We have a hanger all ready for you, so let's go."

Just then, the Lockheed took off. He struggled a little bit in the confined space, but once he was clear of the trees, he increased his altitude until he was well clear of the valley. As he disappeared into the sky, the crowd started to disperse. Sara, however, keep her eyes fixed on the patch of sky where she saw him disappear. She really wanted to call him back and beg him to take her to Hawaii with him, but she knew it was impossible.

"Saraaaa!" Drip shouted, snapping Sara back into reality. The smokejumpers quickly surrounded her.

"We really missed you!" Pinecone added.

"How are you feeling now?" Dynamite asked. "We heard that you'd been injured."

"Ahh…" Sara began, but then Dipper interrupted.

"Guys, don't overwhelm poor Sara! Give her some space."

Sara nodded her thanks to Dipper while the smokejumpers reluctantly backed away. Blade started up his engines.

"Okay, everyone. Last one back to the Air Attack is on clean up duties."

Sara couldn't contain her smile. She was glad some things wouldn't change.

…

Drip was the last one back to the Air Attack, so he was immediately sent to fetch the janitor's gear. Blade escorted Sara over to a brand new hanger that looked like it had been purposely built for her, considering its size.

"Once you're settled, come and see me in the main hanger, so we can begin your training," Blade instructed.

"Yes, sir! I mean, yes er… Blade… Um…" Blushing, Sara ducked inside her hanger. Blade chuckled quietly to himself before he headed over towards the main hanger.

About ten minutes later, Sara arrived at the main hanger. Blade was in there, talking to Maru. Near them was what appeared to be a flattened water tank.

"Lieutenant-Command… I-I mean… Oh goodness!" Sara exclaimed with frustration.

"It's okay, Sara," Blade told her kindly. "I was just discussing with Maru what kind of tank would suit you best."

Sara was confused. "Tank?"

"Yes. You see, now that you're part of the Air Attack team, you'll need to be able to put out fires, as well as carry out search and rescue missions."

Sara gasped. She'd never imagined ever having to do that! Memories of the oil rig explosion that killed her brother flooded her mind while Blade continued talking.

"...And the once you're qualified, you'll be expected to join us every time there's a fire," Blade was saying. Then he noticed that Sara wasn't listening. "Sara? Are you okay? You've gone very pale."

Sara closed her eyes briefly for a moment, while she tried to stop herself from tearing up in front of Blade. Then she drew in a deep breath. "I-I'm just not sure if I'll be any good as a firefighter…"

"You'll never know until you try, will you," Blade replied with a wink. "I'll leave you in Maru's capable tyres."

Maru coughed. "Could you ask Dynamite to come and assist me please, Blade?"

"Of course." And Blade left the hanger.

"But…" Sara muttered, but Blade was already gone. She looked down at Maru, who grinned as he held up an oxy-torch. Sara immediately felt sick in her tank. "Oh, no! Please, Maru, I don't want to fight fires!"

"Why not?" Maru asked.

Sara didn't reply. She couldn't. Just the thought of even being near a fire made her start hyperventilating. Maru noticed this, and he realised that installing a tank underneath Sara would be no easy task, like it had been with Dusty. If Sara had a panic attack while he was underneath her, she could accidentally kill him. Frowning seriously, Maru decided not to take any risks. He'd have to restrain and sedate her.

When Dynamite arrived, Maru took her aside into his office to tell her his plan. She was a bit shocked at first, but she knew that Maru was right. Sara could easily kill them by accident if she panicked, and it wasn't worth taking such a risk.

Sara was now standing tensely in the middle of the hanger. She knew there was no escaping her fire-fighting training, so she'd just have to learn to do her duty and put her fears behind her. Sara was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't even notice Maru cautiously approaching her with a syringe filled with sedative.

Maru knew he had to be cautious. The syringe he was holding contained enough sedative to kill himself or Dynamite, but it would be enough to make Sara drowsy for about an hour, so he and Dynamite would have to work quickly. Normally, before this kind of operation, he'd just give the aircraft a strong painkiller, which is what he'd done with Dusty, but that wouldn't be enough for Sara in her current state.

Moving quickly, Maru emptied the syringe into Sara's fuel tank. Moments later, Sara started to feel woozy, and then she collapsed lower onto her chassis as a wave of drowsiness swept over her. Maru breathed a sigh of relief. That was the sign that the sedative had taken effect. Maru indicated to Dynamite that it was now safe for them to get to work fitting the new tank to Sara. As an extra precaution, Maru secured Sara's rear wheel to the floor with a heavy chain.

Sara remained completely quiet and still throughout the whole operation. Even though her body was relaxed, he brain was still fully active. She knew exactly what was happening to her, but she didn't blame Maru for sedating her. She knew he had his reasons, and they were good ones. After all, the last thing she wanted to do was to hurt Maru or Dynamite.

About an hour later, Maru and Dynamite were finished. And it was just as well, because the sedative was just beginning to wear off, and Sara was starting to become restless. As soon as Maru had released Sara's rear wheel, she bolted from the hanger. She didn't go too far though, because the new tank felt awkward and stiff beneath her chassis.

Dynamite drove over to where Sara had stopped. "It will take some getting used to, but it won't be long before you won't even notice it's there."

Sara just sighed heavily in response.

"Ah!" Blade said as he approached them both. "I'm glad that tank fitted you, Sara. We weren't too sure if it would. Come along now. It's time to begin your training."


	20. Chapter 20

**Disclaimer: All recognisable characters belong to Disney. All OCs belong to me.**

Chapter 20

Because Sara had been sedated to have her new firefighting tank installed, Blade spent the rest of the day running Sara through the theoretical side of her training. It would be far too dangerous for her to undertake practical training until all of the sedative had left her system. While Sara managed to pay attention to everything Blade told her, he could see that her heart wasn't really in it. He could only hope that she'd perk up a bit more during her practical training.

Early the following morning, Blade went over to Sara's hanger to wake her up. Pausing in the open doorway, he peered inside to find Sara sleeping peacefully in a back corner. He watched her for a moment before he knocked on the door. Hearing the knocking, Sara reluctantly blinked open her eyes.

"Morning Sara."

"Morning Blade," Sara replied. Then she yawned.

"Sorry about the early morning wake up call, but it's time for your practical training to begin. Let's go."

Sara shivered when a cool breeze whipped around her as she left her nice, cosy hanger. No amount of military training could make her like early mornings. Sighing, she followed Blade onto the runway, where they took off; flying east.

"To be a good firefighter, you'll need to be able to manoeuvre quickly through steep and narrow terrain. And, as you've already seen, we have the perfect training ground – Augerin Canyon."

A few minutes later, they arrived at the mouth of Augerin Canyon. They hovered there for a moment, while Blade gave out his instructions.

"I want you to fly below the ridge as low as you safely can; avoid the boulders and other obstacles. When you reach the bridge, fly under it and then increase your altitude until you clear the height of Whitewater Falls. Do you think you can manage that?"

Sara cast Blade a scathing glare. As part of her Search and Rescue training, she'd had to tackle obstacles far more difficult than this one. Besides, she'd already traversed Augerin Canyon several time when she was looking for the missing boy.

Without saying a word to Blade, Sara dived down lower into the canyon. Owing to her size, she couldn't get down quite as low as smaller aircraft might be able to, but despite that, she was still extremely nimble. While Blade watched on from a higher altitude, Sara managed to weave her way safely through Augerin Canyon. Then, as she started to approach the bridge, she levelled out to prepare for her climb out of the canyon.

Once Sara had cleared the bridge, she began climbing higher until she was well above the falls. Blade flew over to her.

"Not bad, but you were too slow climbing. In an emergency situation, you need to be able to climb quickly without risking your own life. Try that again."

Sara bristled upon hearing Blade's words, but she flew away without saying anything. By now, some early risers from the Fusel Lodge had arrived at the bridge to view the sunrise as the sun's rays hit the spectacular waterfall, but Sara's training quickly proved to be of equal interest for them.

Sara's second attempt at the course was better and faster, but she still slowed down too much after the bridge to suit Blade's liking, so on her third attempt, Sara decided to try a different tactic. She'd decided to undertake a manoeuvre she'd learned during her basic training, but since she'd been based at sea, she'd never needed to use it. However, now seemed like the perfect opportunity. She could only hope that her rotor shaft was strong enough to handle the G-forces she was about to inflict upon herself. If it wasn't, she could easily die. However, she was feeling very confident now, so she decided to take the risk.

As Sara approached the bridge for the third time, she continued to accelerate. Watching from above, Blade frowned. Sure, he'd wanted Sara to go faster, but not that much faster! However, before he could shout a warning to her, he saw Sara flew under the bridge, and then she starting to tilt herself backwards, pulling up just like an aeroplane would. She didn't go completely vertical though, otherwise she'd simply fall out of the sky, but she managed to keep herself at such an angle that kept enough lift in her rotors to keep her moving steadily upwards. Blade could only watch, completely spellbound as Sara flew straight up the face of the waterfall with her nose pointing at about seventy-five degrees into the sky. What she was doing was one of the hardest manoeuvres a helicopter could make – even he couldn't do it, and he was a trained stunt helicopter! It took so much strength and skill, and for that reason the manoeuvre was rarely taught. In fact, less than one percent of helicopters were capable of pulling off the manoeuvre. Countless others had died trying.

Finally, Sara reached the top of the waterfall. Looking around, she quickly found a safe place to land. Once she'd landed safely, Blade landed beside her. Sara was out of breath, and she was shivering violently.

"It's okay, Sara," Blade soothed. "Just keep taking deep breaths. That's it…"

Five minutes later, Sara's breathing rate had almost returned to normal. Blade looked sternly at her.

"What were you thinking?" he asked Sara evenly.

"You said you wanted me to climb faster, but I'm not as agile as you are, so I put into practice a skill I was taught during my basic training. I was the only helicopter in my class who was able to master that move, but it wasn't compulsory for us to graduate. Unfortunately, since my injury, it isn't as easy as it used to be."

Blade nodded slowly. "Well, until your rotor blade is strong enough, I never want to see you do that move again, understood?"

Sara snapped to attention. "Sir!"

Blade growled. Sara quickly stood at ease.

"Sara, please stop being so formal…"

Sara stared sadly down at the ground. "I'm sorry, Blade. It's just force of habit. I love being in the Coast Guard. At least…I did…"

"Mmm… It's funny how you never did any of the military courtesies the last time you were here."

"I was on the run, and I wanted to hide my true identity."

"You didn't hide it very well with those epaulettes."

Sara blushed. She'd forgotten about her insignia being painted on her sides. No wonder Blade had been able to find out who she was so easily!

"Have I passed?" she asked, quickly changing the subject.

"Not yet. I still have one more training activity for you back at the base, but we'll do that after lunch. I have some paperwork to finish off this morning. Let's go."

Sara gladly started up her engines.

…

After lunch, Blade had the smokejumpers set up five metal drums along one of the runways. Dynamite then lit controlled fires inside each of the drums. Meanwhile, Maru filled up Sara's new firefighting tank with water.

Even though the fires were very well contained, Sara couldn't help staring at them, hoping that none of them would suddenly explode. The flames jumping out of the tops seemed to dance until, inside one drum, Sara was sure she could see the outline of a helicopter.

"Are you ready, Sara?" Blade asked loudly.

Sara jumped violently, and the vision of the helicopter vanished. Her mouth had gone very dry, so Sara swallowed.

"Ahh…"

Maru disconnected the water line. "Yup! She's ready for ya, Blade!"

Sara gulped again when she saw that all of the Air Attack gang had gathered nearby to watch her train.

"Okay, Sara," Blade began. "I want you to put out these fires exactly like I taught you to during your theory lesson yesterday, understood?"

"Yes, Blade," Sara replied. She eyed the fires in the drums again. The sooner she could put those out, the better.

Taking to the air, Sara lined herself up to dowse the drums. She flew in quickly and steadily, just like Blade had taught her. Then, when she was a reasonable distance away from the first drum, she opened the drop doors of her firefighting tank, releasing the water in a controlled spray. The spray landed evenly over all five drums as Sara flew over them. Below her, everyone began cheering and applauding. Even Blade couldn't contain his grin.

"Are you sure you've never had any firefighter training?" he asked excitedly. "That was textbook! Let's do it again to make sure it wasn't a fluke."

But no matter how many times Blade reset the test, Sara nailed it every time. While everyone else was completely amazed by her 'natural ability', the truth was that Sara just hated fire so much that she just wanted to put it out as quickly as possible.

Finally, as the sun was beginning to set, Blade decided to call it day. He smiled proudly at Sara. "I'm afraid I can't qualify you until you've been out with the rest of us to tackle a real wildfire, but you're well and truly on your way. Honestly, I've never had anyone learn how to fight fires as quickly as you have! You're a natural! Keep it up!"

"Wow!" Dipper said to Sara once Blade was out of earshot. "Blade rarely gives out compliments! He must really like you."

Sara was horrified. "You can't be serious?"

"Oh, why not? You're perfect for each other!"

"Dipper, let me make this plain here and now. I am not interested in having a relationship with anyone right now. My career comes first. Period. Now, I'm rather tired, so I think I'll go to bed. Goodnight." And with that, Sara headed towards her hanger.

Dynamite drove up alongside Dipper. "It's a shame she can't see what's right in front of her. And Blade too. You're right, Dipper. They're perfect for each other."

"But how can we make them see that?" Dipper wondered.

"We'll work on it. But don't rush them. These things do take time; especially if both parties are equally as stubborn as those two are!"

Chuckling, Dipper and Dynamite headed over to their respective hangers.

 **Thank you so much for your reviews guys! Please, keep them coming. It won't be long before this story reaches its final climax! I'm really starting to get excited about finally writing down the original ideas that started this whole story concept. Enjoy!**


	21. Chapter 21

**Disclaimer: All recognisable character belong to Disney. All OCs belong to me.**

Chapter 21

A loud, dull tone woke Sara abruptly a few days later. Outside, she could hear the others scurrying out of their respective hangers, and then Patch spoke over the intercom.

"All aircraft. We've just received a report of a wildfire down near Anchor Lake. It was apparently started by a backfiring car, which set a tent alight. I understand that everyone involved is safe and out of the way. Wind is about 5 miles south-east…"

"Let's go, everyone!" Blade shouted urgently. He turned towards Sara, who was just rolling out of her hanger. "Load up with retardant, and then come with me."

"But…" Sara began, but Blade was already taking off.

Sara hurried over to where Maru had just started filling up Dipper's firefighting tank with retardant. Maru quickly attached another hose to Sara's own firefighting tank, and he turned the pump on.

Less than a minute later, the entire Piston Peak Air Attack team was in the air. Sara could sense an alert keenness emanating from her new colleagues. Since this was the first wildfire of the year, they all wanted to have a part in putting it out.

Soon, they arrived at the site of the wildfire. Blade approached the fire, in order to assess the situation. Thick smoke filled the air, and the flames rose clear above the tree-tops. Sara and Windlifter hovered at a safe distance, while Dipper and Cabbie moved into a holding pattern. Finally, Blade finished with his assessment.

"All right, Dipper, I want you to do a split load on the eastern side and vee the head of the fire to the north-west."

"Copy that, Blade," Dipper replied.

Sara watched as Dipper fell out of formation and approached the fire. Blade continued barking out orders.

"Windlifter, follow on behind Dipper and do another split load to help slow the rate of spread. Cabbie? Let's drop the smokejumpers in that clearing near the river. They can form a firebreak there."

"I'm on it, Blade," Cabbie replied, and he flew away so he could line himself up for the drop.

Blade finally turned his attention to Sara. "Sara? I'm going to do a split load on the western side, and I want you to tag along behind me and do another split load."

"Yes, sir!" Sara replied automatically.

Blade rolled his eyes. _You can take Sara out of the military, but you can't take the military out of Sara,_ he thought as he flew down closer to the fire. He dropped his load of retardant, and then he turned to watch Sara as she set herself up to follow along behind him.

Sara drew in a deep breath as she began to dive closer to the flames. The intense heat hit her like a brick wall, but it sent chills racing throughout her entire frame. Memories of the oil rig explosion that had claimed John's life and nearly taken her own instantly flared up in her mind's eye. Before she could stop herself, she began hyperventilating. The flames seemed to be dancing all around her as she drew closer to them. The only sounds she could hear was the 'whoop-whoop' of her rotor blades as they cut through the air, and the pounding of oil running through her oil lines. Then, Sara thought she could see a reflection of John darting in and out amongst the flames.

A terrified scream escaped Sara's lips, and she promptly aborted her flight path without dropping any retardant.

"Sara!" Blade shouted at her, but she could barely hear him. He sounded like he was at the far end of a very long tunnel. "Sara! Watch where you're going!"

A rush of air flew past Sara's face. She blinked, confused by the smoke residue that was still in her eyes. Blinking some more, she finally saw Dipper flying away from her direction.

 _I must've almost flown directly into her!_ Sara suddenly realised.

Blade started barking out more orders. They still sounded incredibly distant. "Windlifter, see if you can finish off the area Sara was supposed to do. Dipper, drop the rest of your load on the east side, and then go and refill at the lake."

Once the others were obeying his orders, Blade turned his attention back to Sara. He was surprised to see that the huge Jayhawk was on the verge of tears.

 _Trust a woman to start blubbing when she knows she's in trouble_ , Blade thought crossly. Aloud, he said, "Sara, I want you to return to base immediately. We'll discuss this incident there."

 _Discuss? Not talk? He must be really angry with me,_ Sara thought as she bolted away through the air. The further she was away from that fire, the better.

…

Blade was still furious by the time he and the others arrived back at the base. It had taken them a couple of hours to contain and then put out the fire, but now the area was at least safe. He still couldn't believe Sara's actions. She'd deliberately flown too close to the flames, and then when she'd realised her mistake, she'd recklessly pulled up directly into Dipper's flight path! She was just incredibly lucky that Dipper had seen her coming, and that she'd been able to take evasive action. One thing was certain – Sara wasn't as ready for firefighting as he'd thought she was.

"Where's Sara?" Blade asked Maru a little more harshly than he'd intended.

"She's inside her hanger," Maru replied evenly.

Blade made his way over to Sara's hanger. Pausing in the open doorway, he coughed to get her attention.

"Sara?"

Hearing Blade cough, Sara reluctantly went over to him. Her panic attack had left her feeling exhausted, and to make matters worse, her weak rotor shaft was also starting to give her a headache. She drew in a deep breath as she waited for Blade to start telling her off. She didn't have long to wait.

"Sara, what the hell happened out there?" Blade began, the anger still in his voice. "You neglected to fulfil the task I gave you, and then you nearly crashed into Dipper! I've warned you about the dangers of flying in a restricted air-space! What the devil were you thinking? You could've killed Dipper today, or yourself!"

"I'm sorry," Sara whispered as the fear began to grip her again. She could feel her fuel tank churning, and her brain was pounding horribly. Hearing the word 'killed' had just pushed her to her limits.

"SORRY?" Blade shouted, completely losing his temper at last. "Your recklessness today almost caused a fatal accident, and all you can say is 'sorry'? I'm afraid I shall have to report this incident to Superintendent Jammer who, I'm sure, will ensure that you are severely disciplined!"

That did it. The only words Sara heard were 'fatal accident', but it sent her over the edge. She began to hyperventilate again, and then everything started spinning into a vortex. Darkness descended over her eyes as she fought to remain conscious.

As Blade ended his rant, he saw Sara turn deathly pale, and then she started hyperventilating. He'd seen that reaction enough times to know what it meant.

"MARU!" Blade shouted urgently across the base. "I need you over here, quickly! Sara's going into shock!"

…

About an hour later, Maru and Dynamite emerged from Sara's hanger. Maru quietly slid the doors closed. Blade, Windlifter, Dipper, Cabbie and the rest of the smokejumpers moved in closer to hear what he had to say.

"Sara's sleeping now," Maru reported. "I've given her a sedative. It should keep her quiet for about twelve hours."

"She will be okay though, won't she, Maru?" Dipper asked anxiously.

"I think so. Dynamite will keep checking on her throughout the rest of the afternoon, as well as tonight. What I'd like to know is, why did she go into shock? What did you say to her, Blade?"

Everyone looked at Blade. He frowned sternly.

"All I did was tell her off for breaking formation and nearly causing an accident."

"I don't think she did it deliberately," Dipper said, surprising everyone by her comment. Dipper continued. "I was closer to her than you were, Blade, and from what I saw, she appeared to be mesmerised by the flames. Then, when you started shouting at her, she panicked and bolted. I saw her eyes as she flew towards me. You know how all vehicles have a 'fight or flight' instinct?" Seeing the others nod, Dipper went on. "Well, I believe Sara chose to flee. I saw the panic in her eyes very clearly. She was in fear for her life, although I have no idea why. The only explanation I can think of is that, perhaps, Sara has pyrophobia."

Blade groaned inwardly. _This is all I need! Why didn't she tell me?_ "Why on earth would she agree to work here then?" he asked aloud. Before anyone could answer that question, Blade answered it himself, "Perhaps she thought she wouldn't have to fight fires."

"That'd make sense," Maru agreed. "After all, when she was here before, all she did was search and rescue work."

Blade exhaled thoughtfully. "One thing I do know about phobias is that nobody is built with them. They are caused by bad experiences. Obviously, something terrible has happened in Sara's past to make her absolutely terrified of fire. Maru? Could you do some research on pyrophobia for me, please? I'd like to know if there's a way we can treat this."

Nodding, Maru heading back towards his own hanger. After that, everyone else slowly dispersed, leaving Blade alone outside Sara's closed hanger.

…

Sara didn't wake up again until the following morning. The sedative Maru had given to her was still making her feel a bit drowsy, but at least her headache had now subsided somewhat, and she no longer felt fearful. Sighing, Sara shrugged the cosy blankets off herself, and then she pushed open the hanger doors with one of her front tyres. She was surprised to find Blade parked nearby, sipping on a can of oil. He looked up when he heard the hanger doors begin to slide open.

"Morning, Sara," he said quietly.

Sara paled a little as she remembered how harshly he'd spoken to her the day before. "Morning," she whispered. Her throat was still a little dry, making it difficult for her to talk. Blade pushed a full can of oil in her direction, and Sara immediately began drinking.

 _Good,_ Blade thought. _At least she still has an appetite_. Maru's research into pyrophobia had proven useful. He now knew what symptoms to look for which might indicate that Sara was about to suffer a panic attack. _Dizziness, hyperventilating, nausea, dry mouth, feeling of being trapped…_

"Blade?" Sara said once she'd finished drinking. "I really am sorry about what happened yesterday. I'll try not to let it happen again."

Blade shook his front. "I'm afraid that's not good enough. I can't have you out there if you're prone to suffering panic attacks. So, until we're able to help you control your pyrophobia, you're on search and rescue duties only."

Sara flinched when Blade said the word 'pyrophobia'. "I don't have pyrophobia," she protested.

"Yes, you do," Blade told her firmly. "And you have a very severe case of it too. What I want to know is, why didn't you tell me?"

Sara froze. She had no idea how to answer that question without mentioning what happened to her. _And John_. Drawing in a deep breath, Sara tried to speak through her trembling lips. "It-it b-brings b-back t-too many…memories…"

Blade moved closer to her. "Please, tell me. It'll help you feel better, I promise. Did you get caught up in a house fire when you were a child?"

Sara shook her front. "N-no…i-it was so much worse than that! Oh! I can't talk about…" And poor Sara finally burst into tears.

For a moment, Blade was unsure of what to do, but then he decided to offer Sara some support by pressing his cheek against hers. "Would it help if we go somewhere private to talk?" he asked softly.

Sara shrugged. "No, because it won't bring him back…"

"Bring who back?"

"M-my older brother…John…" _Oh, what the hell! I may as well just tell him everything!_ Taking a deep breath, Sara tried to control her shaking body.

Blade backed away, looking at her expectantly.

"John was killed instantly in an oil rig explosion when I was only fifteen years old," Sara began. "I saw it all happen from the shore. It was John's job to take the oil workers out there and back each day. But when the explosion happened, he didn't stand a chance. I went to look for him, and I was the first one to get there, but there was nothing I could do. All I saw…" Sara gulped to moisten her dry throat. "…All I saw were dead vehicles strewn across the platform amongst the flames. Some had been thrown off into the water by the force of the explosion. Before I could clear the airspace, a second explosion happened, and the flames hit me…" Sara took another deep breath. "When I eventually woke up, I was in hospital. I'd been in there for three months due to my severe burns… My parents told me that they never found a single trace of John. He'd been in-incinerated…" Sara had barely whispered that last, horrible word. Tears were now flowing freely from her eyes, and she sniffled.

Blade just stared at the huge Jayhawk in shock and disbelief. He had no idea what to say. _After going through all that, she has every right to have pyrophobia!_ Finally, Blade thought of what to say. "Thank you for confiding in me, Sara. Now I understand why you didn't tell me sooner. You should go and get some more rest. Would you like me to send Dynamite to be with you? I don't want you to be alone while you're in this condition."

"Yes, I'd like to be with Dynamite," Sara whispered through her tears. Shivering, Sara returned inside her hanger.

Blade shook his front as he went in search of Dynamite. He found it incredible that Sara could act so tough and in control one minute, only to completely fall apart right in front of him the next. _She's just as vulnerable as the rest of us,_ he thought. In his mind's eye, he saw his best friend, Nick, falling from the sky. He swallowed the lump that rose up in his throat. Sara's past was so similar to his own. _At least I can go and visit Nick's grave. Sara and her family can't even do that!_ He only hoped that he could help Sara overcome her fears. _She needs to get through them before they consume her; like they'd almost consumed me._ Coming to Piston Peak Air Attack had been the best decision he'd ever made. _Let's hope that this place can help Sara heal too_.

 **Thank you so much for all of your comments! I'm so glad so many people are still enjoying this story. I am rapidly approaching this story's dramatic climax, which I'm sure you'll all be as excited to read as I am about writing it!**


	22. Chapter 22

**Disclaimer: All recognisable characters belong to Disney. All OCs belong to me.**

Chapter 22

 **Three months later**

"Patch? This is Sara. Come in, please."

"Reading you loud and clear, Sara. Go ahead."

"Patient has been safely delivered to the hospital, still in a stable condition. I'm on my way back to base now. Over."

"Excellent work, Sara. We'll see you soon. Fly safely. Over."

"I will. Out."

Summertime had come to Piston Peak National Park, bringing with it plenty of campers, but sadly, not much in the way of rain. In fact, it hadn't rained at all during the past month, and it was starting to have an impact. Much of the grass was wilting or dying, and that meant that the park's resident deer weren't able to get enough to eat. Round bales of hay had to be shipped in for them just to survive. The lack of water was also a concern for the Air Attack team, because they relied so heavily on it for putting out fires.

As Sara flew over the Fusel Lodge, she saw Blade perched on a distant rocky cliff face, overlooking the entire park. It was a common place for him to rest, while still keeping an eye on things. Sara smiled. Over the past three months, Blade, Maru and the others had all been trying to help her control her fear of fires. It had reached a point where she could now stand directly in front of a controlled fire inside a drum without having a full-blown panic attack. Her RPMs were still high though, whenever she encountered a large fire. Everyone knew that it would take time, but at least Sara was making steady progress.

"Patch? It's Sara again. Request permission to land. Over."

"Permission granted, Sara. Just watch out for the smokejumpers. They've turned runway two into a soccer pitch. Over."

"Thanks for the heads up. Out."

Despite the smokejumpers' antics, Sara managed to land safely. She went straight over to Maru for a drink, and to make her report.

"The climber was still in a stable condition when I arrived." Sara told Maru. "He should make a full recovery."

"He was very lucky," Maru said. He sipped on his own can of oil. "I was talking to Blade earlier. He wants to know how you'd feel about having another go at firefighting." He paused when he heard Sara gasp. "With little rain, dry grass and heaps of visitors, he knows it'll be a bad summer for wildfires. We could really use your help. You know all the theory. You just need the practical skills."

Sara licked her dry lips thoughtfully. "I understand. And, I know he's worried. That's why he sent that message to Dusty yesterday."

Maru nodded. "We'll definitely need Dusty's help. And yours."

Sara exhaled deeply. "Okay. I'll try. But, if I feel a panic attack coming on, I'll tell Blade straight away."

Maru smiled. "I knew you wouldn't let us down."

…

Later that night, Sara was parked near the edge of the ridge that the Air Attack was built on. Seeing her all by herself, Blade went over to her.

"It's a nice night, isn't it?" he asked quietly.

"Yes, it is," Sara replied without turning around to look at him.

Blade parked beside her, and he let out a small sigh. There was silence for a moment, but then Blade spoke again.

"Dusty should be here sometime tomorrow. He's looking forward to seeing you again."

"So am I. He's a great guy."

"Maru told me that you're willing to try firefighting again. I don't want you to feel obligated if you're not sure you're ready for it."

Sara exhaled deeply. "After John died, I made a vow that I would devote my entire life to saving others. That's why I joined the Coast Guard. I didn't want his death to be in vain."

Blade smiled proudly at Sara. "You're still honouring that vow by being here."

"I know."

The silence resumed. Neither helicopter moved. They were lost in their own thoughts. Finally, Sara spoke.

"I'm going to turn in. Goodnight, Blade."

"Goodnight."

After Sara had gone inside her hanger, Maru drove over to Blade.

"You two are perfect for each other, you know that, right?"

Blade growled softly. "It wouldn't work, Maru."

"Why not?"

"If this was the military, I'd be her commanding officer. I'd feel bad every time I gave her an order."

"You'd get used to it."

"Would I? Somehow, I'm not so sure."

"Just tell her that you love her. The worst she can do is say 'no'."

Blade smiled slightly. "Some men would say that the worst a woman could say is 'yes'."

Maru laughed. "Good one, Blade! Seriously though, if you don't ask her, you'll always be left wondering."

"True. I'll think about it, okay?"

Maru nodded. "Don't stay up too late."

"Yes, mother."

An empty oil can flew in Blade's direction. Luckily, it landed beside him. Blade turned to see Maru driving away, chuckling to himself. Blade chuckled too. He found he could always just be himself around Maru. It was a side that many others never got to see.

From her hanger window, Sara had watched Blade and Maru talking. While she couldn't hear what they were saying, she guessed that they were talking about her. She also chuckled when she saw Maru throw the empty oil can at Blade. The Blade she knew would've been infuriated by that, but Blade seemed to be more amused than upset. It made her wonder for the briefest moment if she and Blade could form a relationship together, but then she dismissed the thought just as quickly.

 _Where did that even come from?_

Sighing, Sara settled down to sleep. With Dusty arriving, tomorrow was going to be a big day.

…

"DUSTMUFFIN!" Dipper screeched as Dusty came in to land the following afternoon. Sara swore she saw Dusty cringe as his crush hurried over to him.

"Hi Dipper," Dusty said awkwardly. Dipper didn't seem to even notice.

"How did your races go?" Dipper continued excitedly. "I know things around here probably won't be as exciting, but with you here, I'm sure that'll change very soon!"

Dusty cleared his throat. Obviously, he was unsure of what to say, so he turned to face Blade. "Care to run me through things, Blade?"

"Of course. Come to the main hanger, and we can begin immediately. Unless you'd like to rest first?"

Dusty shook his front, and then he followed Blade over to the main hanger. Blade paused in the doorway.

"Sara? Could you go on a patrol, please?"

Sara was pleasantly surprised. Patrols were something Blade liked to do personally, and so for him to ask someone else to fill in for him was a significant change.

"Sure, Blade," Sara replied eagerly. "Is there anywhere in particular you'd like me to check?"

Pausing in front of the main hanger, Blade turned back to look at her, surprised by her question. He'd been expecting her to take off immediately. "The campsite at Anchor Lake, and Augerin Canyon are both notorious hot-spots for fires, so check them first. Then check the ridges further down the valley. If you see anything suspicious, report it immediately and then keep analysing the situation. Do not put yourself at risk under any circumstances, understood?"

"Yes, Blade." _I wouldn't dream of it!_ Starting up her engines, Sara waited until she had enough lift before she took off.

Blade watched her leave. _With her attitude, I couldn't be surprised if she eventually takes over from me._

…

Following Blade's directions, Sara checked Anchor Lake first. She saw one campfire, but it was clearly well-contained within the designated fire pit, so she left the happy campers alone. _They're probably cooking their lunch._ Next, she flew through Augerin Canyon. Many more campers were parked on the bridge, eagerly enjoying the refreshingly cool spray caused by Whitewall Falls. Hovering for a moment, Sara smiled down at them. A few vehicles waved their tyres at her, which she acknowledged with a nod. Feeling satisfied that everything was okay, Sara turned around so she could fly back out of the canyon.

Soon, Sara was on her way back to base, having checked all of the nooks and crannies within the park. She was just about to report in to Patch, when something up on Thunderbolt Bluff caught her eye. Flying closer, she saw a thin trail of smoke rising into the sky. It resembled a campfire, but campers weren't supposed to be anywhere near that ridge. It was too inaccessible, except for rock climbers and abseilors. Frowning, Sara flew in even closer, hovering almost directly above the smoke. What she saw made her catch her breath.

 _It's a spot fire!_

For a moment, Sara fought her instinct to fly away. Taking a deep breath to calm her racing engines, she tuned in her radio.

"Sara to Patch! I have to report a spot fire. Over."

"Copy that, Sara. Location? Over."

"Thunderbolt Bluff. About a hundred feet below the top of the ridge. Over."

"Got that. How big is it? Over."

"Larger than a bonfire, and it's starting to spread. Over."

"Do you think you can handle it by yourself? Over."

Sara hesitated. Yes, she could easily take care of the fire with a single load of retardant, but fear held her back. _What if I do it wrong and it gets worse? What if I need more than one load of retardant? You_ will _need more if you don't make a decision quickly!_

Taking a deep breath, Sara responded to Patch's question. "Yes, I can handle it, but please have someone on standby in case I need back-up. Over."

"Will do. Be careful. Over."

"I will. Out."

Circling around the fire, Sara took careful note of which direction it was heading. _North-west with a moderate rate of spread. Okay, Sara… You can do this…_ Flying down to the correct altitude, Sara approached the fire from the side overlooking the valley. That way, she could trap it against the cliffs. At the right moment, Sara dropped half of her load of retardant on the burning trees. There was a hissing sound as the flames were extinguished. Turning, Sara reassessed the situation. Her first drop had put out more than half of the fire. If she worked quickly, she should be able to finish it off completely.

Making her second approach, Sara flew directly over the remaining flames, dropping what remained of her retardant. When she looked back, she smiled when she saw that all of the flames had been successfully extinguished. There was nothing left but a small patch of burned tress.

 _I did it. I did it! I actually put out a spot fire!_ Still feeling elated, Sara reported in to Patch.

"Sara to Patch. Spot fire has been extinguished. I'd advise another drop over the area just to ensure it stays out, but I'm confident I managed to get it all in time. Over."

"Excellent work, Sara! I'll send Windlifter there now. Blade wants to see you when you get back. Over."

"Do you want me to wait for Windlifter? Over."

"No, you can come back now. Over."

"Understood. Out."

…

"You never cease to amaze me, Sara," Blade said once he had Sara alone for her debrief. "Today, you handled a stressful situation perfectly all by yourself, and yet, whenever you're faced with a smaller, and much less stressful task, you completely freeze!"

"That only applies to fires, Blade," Sara reminded him.

"Yes, I know. Even so, what you did today was remarkable, considering how far you still have to go for you to completely overcome your pyrophobia. From now on, I want you on the firefighting team permanently."

"Do you really think I can handle it?" Sara asked doubtfully.

"I do. Today has proven that to me. You may go and rest now. I'll see you at dinner."

"Okay." Sara said, and she left the main hanger. She'd almost reached her own hanger, when the alarm sounded over the loudspeakers.

"Attention all aircraft!" Patch said through the loudspeakers. "We have reports of three spot fires in Augerin Canyon. It is imperative that we get these spot fires under control before they converge and block the only road out of the canyon! Windlifter is already on site. Wind is moderate in a north-western direction."

"Let's go, everyone!" Maru shouted, and the whole base instantly came to life. Sara hurried back over to where Maru could connect her firefighting tank to the retardant pump.

"I need fuel too, Maru!" Sara told the trusty little forklift. He immediately connected the fuel nozzle to her tank. Sara watched as Dipper and Dusty were also loaded up with retardant.

"This is so exciting!" Dipper squealed excitedly. "It's your first fire of the season, Dusty!"

Sara saw Dusty roll his eyes. _If you really don't like her, Dusty, you should tell her._

Meanwhile, the smokejumpers reversed inside Cabbie. Finally, once everyone was ready, they took off in an orderly fashion following behind Blade. As they approached Augerin Canyon, Sara's eyes widened when she saw that the canyon entrance was completely engulfed with smoke and flames.

"I thought you said you'd checked Augerin Canyon!" Blade shouted at her.

"I did!" Sara insisted. "It must've started immediately after I left! It's only been two hours since I was last here."

"Don't argue about that now, you two!" Dipper said firmly. "Where's Windlifter?"

As if on cue, Windlifter flew out of the smoke. "There are about thirty vehicles who can't get out of the canyon because of the smoke," he reported to Blade. "Let's deal with clearing the road first, and then we can focus on containing the rest of the fire."

Blade nodded in agreement. "Let's do it!"

 **Thank you so much for your reviews and encouragement! It really does help to keep me motivated. I'm just so thrilled to know that so many people love this story, so thanks again. Next chapter will be the climax of this whole story, so stay tuned!**


	23. Chapter 23

**Disclaimer: All recognisable characters belong to Disney. All OCs belong to me.**

Chapter 23

Working together, the Piston Peak Air Attack team managed to clear the road for about twenty of the thirty trapped vehicles. However, the fire was spreading much faster than expected, primarily because Augurin Canyon acted like a wind tunnel, fanning the flames further up the canyon towards the waterfall. At Blade's request, Sara flew further into the canyon to see if she could find the rest of the trapped visitors. What she found shocked her, despite her many years of rescue experience.

"Blade, the situation is worse than we thought," Sara reported over the radio.

" _What do you mean?_ "

"There are more spot fires up near the bridge. I can see eight vehicles taking shelter on it. I'm going to have to airlift them to safety."

" _I'll trust your judgement_ ," Blade agreed. " _I just can't understand how all these fires could start at once!_ "

"Could it be arson, perhaps?" Sara suggested.

There was silence for a moment, but then Blade exhaled deeply. " _I wouldn't rule that out. However, that shouldn't be our concern right now. I'll send Dipper and Dusty to join you at the far end of the canyon. Stay in contact._ "

"Will do," Sara replied. Flying closer to the bridge, Sara looked for a safe place to land. The only clear, flat spot in the area was on the bridge itself. Frowning scrupulously, Sara circled, preparing to land on the bridge.

When the vehicles saw Sara circling, they realised her intentions to land, so they all moved back to give her plenty of room. As soon as the centre of the concrete and steel bridge had been cleared, Sara landed smoothly.

"All right, listen up everyone!" Sara shouted above the roar of her powerful engines. "The road out of here has been completely blocked by fire, so I'm going to have to airlift you all to safety. I can only take four of you at a time, so I want women and children to get on board first."

Sara was pleased to see the vehicles respond to her request in an orderly fashion. Since the spot fires were still some distance away, the vehicles didn't see the need to panic. Not yet, anyway.

Three women cars and a baby boarded Sara for the first airlift. Sara was slightly worried. This would be the first real weight test for her rotor shaft since her near-fatal crash just over six months earlier. She only hoped that it would be able to take the weight, which was dangerously close to her new maximum limit.

Once everyone was ready, Sara closed her door to ensure that nobody could accidentally fall out of her. Then, she took off into the sky, which was now clouded in a heavy smoke haze. Sara had no choice. She had to fly through the smoke. That was exceptionally dangerous for any aircraft. The smoke could easily suffocate them in a short period of time if they weren't careful. Holding their breath helped, but the smoke could also choke their engines, and that was nearly always fatal. Taking a deep breath, Sara bravely flew into the smoke.

" _Sara? I want a status report, now!_ " Blade demanded over the radio.

Sara let go of the breath she was holding. "I'm evacuating trapped civilians, and I'm currently in the smoke haze."

" _Be careful in the smoke. I don't want any mid-air collisions. Where are you evacuating the visitors to?_ "

"Anchor lake. They should be able to make it safely back to the Lodge from there."

" _Right. I'll advise Jammer to call the emergency services. We really need some back-up, and it wouldn't hurt to have paramedics on stand-by._ "

"Understood, Blade. I'll let you know when I'm about to leave Anchor Lake."

" _Just stay in radio contact._ "

"I will."

A few minutes later, Sara cleared the smoke, but she was now coughing profusely. However, she managed to land safely in a clearing, where she let her precious cargo disembark.

"You'll be able to get safely to the Lodge from here," Sara told the women between coughs. "There should be some paramedics there by the time you arrive."

"Thank you," one of the women replied, sounding very grateful indeed.

Nodding, Sara took off into the sky again.

…

By the time Sara had finished with the three men and one woman who'd been the second group of evacuees, she was seriously feeling the effects of smoke inhalation. Despite that, she took off again to help the others put out the fires. It was very late now, and the sun had almost set. Sara knew that Blade would not be happy with them flying at night, but in situations like this, there was little choice.

"Sara?" Dusty called urgently over the radio.

"Yes, Dusty?"

"Dipper has just found a forklift in need of evacuation! He was trapped near the bridge, but we've managed to clear a path for him. He's on the bridge now, but the fire is nearly there. You may not be able to land again."

"I'll do my best," Sara promised.

When Sara arrived at the bridge, she was shocked to see who the stranded forklift was. It was Commander Grayson!

 _What the hell is he even doing here?_ Sara's mind raced. _Damn it! I wish Dipper hadn't found him! Then I could just pretend that I didn't see him… No, Sara! That's not who you are! What on earth am I going to do now?_

As the war raged within her, Sara suddenly recalled the oath she'd pledged about six months earlier, when she'd been well enough to accept her promotion to Lieutenant-Commander.

 _I,_ _Sara Chopper, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me Manufacturer._

"Help me!" Sara begged. Knowing that she had no other choice, Sara flew closer to Grayson.

Seeing Sara emerge from the smoke, Grayson scowled. "I was wondering when you were going to show up!" he shouted above to roar of Sara's engines.

Sara decided to ignore his comments, but it wasn't easy. Gingerly, she lowered her sling. Grayson grabbed it with his forklift arms, and he pulled himself into it. With much reluctance, Sara pulled him inside of her.

"Are you giving me the silent treatment now?" Grayson asked coldly.

"Please, move away from the door, so I can close it," Sara said methodically while she continued to hover above the bridge.

"No, I don't think I'll do that. I'm enjoying seeing my handiwork."

Sara exhaled loudly. _So, you admit to being an arsonist as well now! I can't wait to see what the authorities have to say about that._

"I've given you an order, sir! Move away from the door!"

"Or you'll do what? Hmm? You're actually rather defenceless…"

Sara couldn't see what Grayson was doing, but she could feel him. He was hanging onto her handrail with one forklift arm, while the other had grasped the door of her inspection panel.

 _What the hell is he doing?_

Before Sara could react, Grayson had opened the door of her inspection panel. "Are you crazy?" Sara screamed as panic began to set in. "You're going to get us both killed!"

"That's my intention!" Grayson retorted, as he struggled to maintain his grip. "When I go down, you'll go down with me! That'll teach your pretty little boyfriend a lesson! Nobody crosses me and gets away with it! Not even the Coast Guard!"

Sara gasped as the reality of her situation dawned on her. Grayson had deliberately lit those fires to trap her. He wanted revenge because she'd rejected his advances, which had eventually resulted in him being given a dishonourable discharge from the Coast Guard.

Grayson took hold of the hydraulic line that controlled the folding mechanism of Sara's rotors. If he broke that, Sara would lose complete control of her rotors, and then she'd fall helplessly from the sky. Taking a deep breath to try and calm herself, Sara thought quickly.

 _This is a life or death situation… I have to do something quickly, or we'll both die…_

"Blade, I am being held hostage at the bridge!" Sara shouted into the radio. "Repeat, I am being held hostage-"

Sara never got to finish that sentence. Less than a second later, several loud explosions echoed throughout the canyon.

 **Hey everyone! I am so sorry to have taken so long to update! First, I suffered from writer's block because I wanted this chapter to be brilliant (what I've actually written differs slightly from my original idea, but I like this idea better). Then, my computer crashed (I am still having issues with it), and then thirdly I got sick. So, yeah, it was like a domino effect really, lol! Anyway, I really do hope that everyone enjoys this chapter, since it's the climax of the whole story. Sorry for the cliffhanger. I love using them to tease you, hehe!**


	24. Chapter 24

**Disclaimer: All recognisable characters belong to Disney. All OCs belong to me.**

Chapter 24

Blade froze in mid-air as the echo from the explosions reached his ears. He'd heard Sara's distress call and had been on his way to assist when the radio had suddenly cut out. And it wasn't a transmission fault either. The radio had gone dead.

Fear gripped at Blade's heart. _No! Not Sara! She can't be… No! I can't even think of that horrible word!_

"Blade?" Dusty's voice came in over the radio. "Dipper and I have the bridge fire under control now, but we can't figure out the cause of those explosions. I tried to radio Sara, but her radio's gone dead. I hope she's okay…"

Blade gulped. He had to know the truth, one way or another. "I'm on my way."

…

Sara shivered. It was bitterly cold and quiet. The silence frightened her. Then, a bolt of pain shot throughout her entire body, making her whimper pitifully. The pain was coming from her front right-hand wheel. Instinctively, she shifted her weight onto her two other wheels, to help ease the pain.

A low groan sounded behind her. Sara slowly forced her eyes open. Miraculously, she was standing on the bridge, just inside the safety rail. The only light to be seen was an orange glow resulting from the few remaining spot fires. Sara turned her lights on. Then she coughed. A heavy smoke haze hung in the air. However, Sara couldn't remember how she'd come to be on the bridge.

 _What happened?_

Turning around carefully, Sara's eyes widened when the beam from her lights landed on a familiar figure. Grayson was lying on his side directly behind her. His oil was splattered on the concrete all around him, mixing with Sara's own hydraulic fluid, which was leaking out of her as well.

 _What's Grayson doing here? Come to think of it, what am_ I _doing here?_

Sara limped closer to Grayson, and she nudged him gently with her nose. He was alive, but completely unconscious. Sara's eyes widened in alarm when she saw a bullet wound in Grayson's side. The shock broke through her temporary amnesia, and she staggered backwards as her memories of what had just happened came flooding back to her.

 _I shot him! Oh, Chrysler! I shot him! I've fired warning shots at other people before, but I've never actually injured anyone!_

"Please, don't die!" Sara begged under her breath.

"Sara!"

Looking up into the orange haze that was the night sky, Sara breathed a small sigh of relief when she saw Blade flying towards her, leading the rest of the Air Attack team.

"Down here, Blade!" Sara called back. A wave of dizziness suddenly swept over her, making her stagger. She winced when she accidentally put some weight on her injured wheel.

Blade carefully landed on the bridge, while the others fell into a holding pattern above them. Sara flinched when Blade shone his lights straight at her.

"You're alive!" Blade said, his voice full of relief.

Sara shrugged. "Miraculously. I don't remember everything, but we need help."

Blade was confused. "We?"

Sara gestured to Grayson. "He's still alive too. We need some paramedics up here."

"But… Can't you fly?"

Sara shook her front. "No. Grayson broke my hydraulic line, along with my radio."

 _That explains a lot!_ "All right. I'll go and get some help. At least the remaining fires are now under control, so you should be quite safe here. In the meantime, I'll send Dynamite to come and help you."

"Thanks…" Sara whispered. She was starting to slip into shock.

 _On second thoughts, I don't think I'll leave her_. "Cabbie?" Blade said over the radio. "Could you please go down to the Lodge and fetch a couple of paramedics?"

"Sure, Blade," Cabbie replied, and he flew away.

A few minutes later, Dynamite arrived at the scene. Seeing Sara's injuries, she immediately began to attend to her.

"No…" Sara whispered, breathing heavily. "T…take care of Grayson…first…"

"I will do no such thing!" Dynamite retorted firmly. "You've been hurt, and I need to stem your wounds before you bleed to death. Oh, keep still! You wriggle worse than Blade!"

"Blade?" Sara replied in a daze. Blinking, she looked around for the small red helicopter.

Realising that Sara was looking for him, Blade moved into her field of vison. Sara instantly relaxed.

Dynamite had almost finished doing her best to treat Sara's wounds, when Cabbie arrived with two forklift paramedics. They both skydived out of Cabbie, landing safely on the bridge.

"Right, what's the situation?" one of them asked.

"Sara here is bleeding hydraulic fluid, and that other fellow has a gunshot wound," Dynamite answered.

"Geez, that's a Lieutenant-Commander!" the first paramedic exclaimed as soon as he saw Sara's insignia. "I was a paratrooper in the army," he quickly explained after seeing Blade's perplexed expression. Hurrying over to Sara, he began to give Dynamite the assistance she needed. Meanwhile, his colleague began treating Grayson.

…

About three hours later, everyone in the national park had gathered inside the Fusel Lodge, at the request of the police investigators, who'd been sent to investigate the fire. Since Sara couldn't fly, Dynamite and Pinecone had towed her down to the Lodge via the road, while Windlifter had carried Grayson there in a sling. Grayson was still alive, but only just. The bullet had become embedded in his engine casing, which would require surgery to remove it. If it was removed without the proper care and equipment, Grayson would bleed to death.

Sara was being treated by a small team of paramedics, when the police inspectors came over to her.

"Is she well enough to be interviewed?" the chief investigator asked the paramedics.

"I think so," one of the paramedics answered. "Sara? These gentlemen want to talk to you, okay?"

"Sure," Sara replied tiredly. Glancing up at the clock, she saw that it was nearly ten p.m. _What a long day!_

"What is your full name, please?" the chief investigator asked Sara.

"Lieutenant-Commander Sara Chopper," Sara replied.

"Middle name?"

Sara hesitated before replying with, "Jane."

"Thank you. And your occupation?"

"Search and Rescue helicopter at the Piston Peak Air Attack."

"Good. Now, before we begin, I must warn you that anything you say could be used as evidence in a court of law. You have the right to refrain from answering any questions I put to you. Do you understand what I've just said?"

"Yes, sir."

"Very well then. Can you please tell us everything that happened as soon as these fires started?"

"Sure…"

It took about twenty minutes for Sara to recount the day's events, as clearly as she could recall them. She finally got to the part when she'd tried to radio Blade about Grayson high-jacking her.

"What happened next is a bit hazy still, but I'll tell you what I do remember. As soon as Grayson heard me calling for help, he let go of my hydraulic cable, so he could break my radio cable instead. However, while I'd distracted him with the radio, I aimed my rifle at him. Since I'm still officially in the Coast Guard, I am legally allowed to carry a rifle and a machine gun. I knew the machine gun would be overkill, so I opted for my rifle instead. I fired the first shot as soon as Grayson broke my radio cable, but I missed him. Grayson swore, and he went for my hydraulic cable again. I fired another shot, which grazed him. He lost his balance, so he grabbed my hydraulic cable to regain it. He must have broken it then, because that's when I started spinning out of control. I fired another shot, and he fell off me. I blacked out after that. When I woke up, I found myself standing on the bridge, with Grayson right behind me. I suppose you know what happened after that."

"We do, thank you. Mr Blade Ranger has already given us his statement. I do have a few questions I'd like answered."

"I'll do my best to answer them, sir."

"What reason would Mr Grayson have to kill you, as well as commit suicide?"

"I rejected his advances when he was my commanding officer in the Coast Guard. He was given a dishonourable discharge a few months later for numerous reasons relating to myself and to his work ethic."

"I see. But you're still in the Coast Guard?"

"Yes. I was promoted to Lieutenant-Commander when Grayson was discharged, but then I was transferred here due to an injury that inhibited my duties with the Coast Guard."

The chief investigator nodded. "I'll follow that up with the Coast Guard later. Do you have any proof of Mr Grayson confessing to the crime of arson?"

"I believe so. My black boxes should have recorded everything."

"They'll have to be removed in a hospital," the chief investigator said thoughtfully.  
"Will you consent to that?"

"Of course! I'll have to go there anyway, to have my lost hydraulic fluid replaced."

"That's settled then. I'll save any further questions until after we've analysed your black boxes. Do you have any other injuries?"

"Yeah, the paramedics said I've sprained my wheel. At least it's not broken."

"That is good news. I hope you recover soon. All right, I'll send Officer Grahams and Officer Markham here to the hospital with you, so they can retrieve your black boxes. Hopefully, the data will collaborate with what you've told us."

"I hope so too," Sara agreed.

 **Well, I'm sorry to say that I've almost finished this story. There's only one chapter left to go! I can promise you that it will be a happy ending for all but one character (and I think you can guess who that will be!). Thank you to everyone who has left a review. I can assure you that they have been greatly appreciated.**


	25. Chapter 25

**Disclaimer: All recognisable characters belong to Disney. All OCs belong to me.**

Chapter 25

 **Two days later…**

Sara sighed contently as she watched the glowing red and orange sunset from the edge of the runway at the Piston Peak Air Attack. The events of the past couple of days now seemed like a distant memory that would eventually fade into the depths of time.

Sara's black boxes had indeed collaborated with her statement over what had happened between her and Grayson. The voice recorder had also picked up Grayson's confession to arson as well as attempted murder, and he was now under police guard in hospital. But Sara wasn't off the hook herself; not yet anyway. As soon as Grayson was well enough to face trial, Sara would have to testify against him. He would be charged with arson to public property, physical assault on a commissioned officer occasioning bodily harm, and attempted murder. Sara knew that it was very likely that he would be imprisoned for at least ten years. At least, that was what she was hoping for.

The police investigation had already decided that Sara would not be prosecuted for shooting Grayson, since she had clearly acted in self-defence. She wouldn't face any military discipline either, although Vice-Admiral Sharp had jokingly said to Sara over the phone that, since it took her three shots to disable Grayson, she should be required to undergo a refresher course in the use of firearms. They'd then discussed Sara's possible return to the Coast Guard. Sara was keen to return, even if it meant just doing a desk job, but in the end she'd agreed to wait a few years, and then see if her rotor shaft had strengthened enough to enable her to return. In the meantime, she's assured Vice-Admiral Sharp that she was perfectly content to stay in service at Piston Peak. For her bravery during the hostage incident with Grayson, Vice-Admiral Sharp had decided to grant Sara the Coast Guard Commendation medal. He'd wanted to give her another promotion, but since he'd only just given her one, he couldn't justify it. And so, he had to be content with presenting her with the medal. Sara, for her part, thought that the medal was too much for what she'd done. She'd wanted to refuse it, until Blade had managed to persuade her that she had fully earned it.

Someone quietly parked alongside Sara. She smiled when she saw that it was Blade.

"What a brilliant sunset!" Blade whispered.

"I know," Sara agreed. After a moment of silence between them, Sara continued. "I used to love watching the sunsets over the ocean. I never thought that anything could be more beautiful…until I saw the sun setting in the mountains. The colours I can see here are so much more vibrant than anywhere else."

Blade drew in a deep breath. _What the hell! The worst she can do is say 'no'…_ "Sara?"

"Yes, Blade?"

"Uh… I was…wondering… Um… Do you like me?"

Sara cast him a confused look. "As a boss, you mean?"

"No… More like, a friend… A very, very close friend…"

 _Oh, I see where this is heading!_ Sara thought, smirking inwardly. _I might just tease him a little bit. I'd like to see how much he squirms…_ "Well, yes, I do like you. Who wouldn't like you?"

Blade wanted to rip his rotors out. _She doesn't understand what I'm trying to ask her! Why is it so damn hard for me to talk to her?_ Glancing behind him, Blade saw Maru watching him from the main hanger. The little forklift made a kissing gesture with his lips. Blade scowled before turning his attention back to Sara.

"Sara… What I'm trying to say…or, rather ask you is… Do you-"

Blade's question was cut short when chorus of the song _'Can You Feel the Love Tonight?'_ resounded over the loudspeakers. Sara promptly burst out laughing. The shocked expression on Blade's face was priceless! But then, as the shock faded, Blade looked ready to burst into tears. Sara immediately softened.

"I have an idea. Let's fly to the top of the waterfall. We can talk in peace there."

Blade sighed with relief. _That's a brilliant suggestion! Damn you, Maru! I'll make you pay for that later, and when I do, it will be long drawn out and painful…_ "I'm right behind you."

About twenty minutes later, Sara and Blade landed on the rock face at the top of the waterfall. It was actually rather quiet up there, and the view was incredible. Blade took in a deep breath of the crisp, cool evening air.

"Sara? I want to tell you that…well…" _Just say it!_ "…I love you."

Smiling, Sara closed her eyes momentarily. "For how long?"

"I'm not sure, really. I guess it just slowly happened over time. I was worried sick about you when you were injured, and I was so relieved when you came back here. I didn't share my true feelings with you sooner, because I was afraid you wouldn't want to be in a relationship with your boss; especially considering my age. I mean, seriously, I'm old enough to be your father!"

"But I like that about you," Sara whispered in reply.

"Huh?"

Sara smiled sweetly at him. "I don't care that you're like, twenty years older than me. Age is no barrier when it comes to true love. Sure, I know my parents would be much more comfortable if there wasn't such a big age gap between us, but I know they want what's best for me. And they want me to be happy."

"And…would you be happy…with me?"

Sara moved closer to him. "Yes. I believe I would be very happy with you. I know I've denied my feelings for you in the past, but things have changed. I can now honestly say that…I'm in love with you."

Blade felt his oil temperature shoot up. He breathed in deeply to try and settle his racing RPMs. "So, uh… Does this mean that we're officially a couple now?"

"Boyfriend and girlfriend, you mean?"

Blade nodded eagerly. Sara smiled again.

"Sure! Why not? But, just so you know, I'm not going to go rushing into a marriage. I want to know everything I can about you before we even consider getting engaged, agreed? No matter how long it takes."

Blade nodded thoughtfully. "I understand. And, I want the same thing. It's time we learned to open up to each other. No more secrets."

"No more secrets," Sara agreed. Taking a deep breath, she moved in closer towards Blade, hoping that he'd realise what she wanted.

"May I kiss you?" Blade asked her softly.

"Of course you may!"

The two helicopters locked their lips together. For several minutes, they kissed passionately, until Sara finally pulled away to catch her breath.

"Wow!" she exclaimed. "You're a surprisingly good kisser!"

Blade was too out of breath to say anything for several minutes. When he'd finally composed himself, he said, "We should head back now, before it gets much darker. Do you think we should tell the others our news, or leave them guessing?"

Sara smirked. "Oh, I'm all for leaving them guessing! It'll send Dipper, Dynamite and Maru mad!"

Blade chuckled at the thought. "Yes, I suppose I do owe Maru a chance to sweat after he chained me down during my last maintenance inspection… It was quite unnecessary!"

Chuckling, the two helicopters gently bumped their noses together.

"I love you, Sara," Blade whispered.

"I love you too, Blade. I love you too."

 **And that was the final chapter! I'm sorry this story has ended, but it had to at some point. For the record, I'm not planning a sequel anytime soon. I have too many other writing commitments right now, but it may happen one day if I get a good enough idea.**

 **I'd like to extend a big thank you to everyone who's read this story, and especially to those who have taken the time to leave a review/reviews. They were very encouraging and helpful, and I'm so glad everyone's really enjoyed this story!**


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